For Want of a Nail
by RedHunter87
Summary: AU: Small actions can result in large consequences. Goku preventing his son from transforming into a super sayian in the battle against Frieza and King Cold in the Mirai timeline throws that timeline into chaos, and has a drastic effect on DBZ as we know it.
1. Chapter 1-Someone To Hate

**Future Saga **

**Chapter 1- Someone To Hate**

_A/N: Hello everyone, welcome to the first chapter of my first story. Let me know what you think, I welcome all feedback good and bad. I own nothing when it comes to DBZ, if I had owned it we would have never had to suffer through GT. This story is going to be rated T due to the language and graphic violence. Some chapters may be rated M but I will warn you at the start of those chapters if this is the case. See the A/N at the end of the chapter for news about the next update._

_Special thanks to __**RoxaShadow**__ for being my beta reader and for all of the suggestions that helped to vastly improve this story. _

For Want of a Nail_For want of a nail the shoe was lost.__  
__For want of a shoe the horse was lost.__  
__For want of a horse the rider was lost.__  
__For want of a rider the message was lost.__  
__For want of a message the battle was lost.__  
__For want of a battle the kingdom was lost.__  
__And all for the want of a horseshoe nail._

August , Age 774 Future Timeline

Just outside the moons of Saturn a spaceship warped into normal space. "We are very close to the target planet Earth sire. ETA 2 hours." The ship captain gasped as a Death Beam shot through him causing him to fall dead to the floor of the spaceship.

"Frieza please, ship captains don't grow on trees you know. You have waited this long what is a few more hours?" King Cold lightly scolded his son.

"Father he told us that we would arrive at Earth in 36 hours. It is now 36 hours and five minutes. We have standards to keep up among our ranks you know." He laughed as he sat by his fathers side on a slightly smaller throne on the ships bridge. He sipped at his wine as he talked. While Frizea appeared relaxed on the outside he was anything but that on the inside. I swear that I will see all of your friends dead at your feet before I kill you Goku. Then I will kill everyone and everything you have ever loved. No saiyan monkey is going to get the best of me. He pointed at a very nervous tech standing by the fallen body. "Congratulations you have just be promoted to the job of captain of this ship. Now you will take us to Earth as quickly as possible. I want to know how quickly that is. Oh and remove that body before it starts to stink up the place."

"Right away my lord." He walked over to the console and checked the readings. "If we push the engines as much as it is safe to do we can arrive in Earth orbit in under an hour, at which point we will have to slow down considerably to land." He pointed at two of the techs who now worked for him. "You two remove the body and then get back here and help me fly the ship. Everything must be perfect, I won't tolerate failure like this piece of shit before did. You saw what failure got him and I assure you that if I go down I will be taking those that caused me to go down with me." He pointed to another servant. "You will make sure that the every need of our sires are attended to. If you screw up I will kill you myself before our lords can be bothered with it." He hit a couple of buttons and the ship shot forward gaining speed as it went.

"Father this one might last a while." "Yes you made a good choice in him my son. Now please relax and enjoy the view of the planet, before we blow it up that is. I still don't understand why we can't just below it up from space."

"Father really, you have no sense of the art of revenge. We could blow the planet up from space, but then I wouldn't be able to pile the broken bodies of Goku's friends and family at his feet before I crush him utterly. And that is the entire point of making this trip. I didn't go through the long hours of surgery and rehab to be denied my revenge."

It was true that Frieza had been in sad shape when the forces of King Cold had found him floating among the ruins of Namek. They had worked long and hard both to save his life and then build him a new body to replace the one that he had lost. Now he was part machine, about half machine really. The new parts enhanced his strength making him even more terrifying then he usually was.

"Very well Frizea we will do things your way for now. Just be quick about it. The sooner we are away from this backwater the better. Although I do admit I am interested in seeing this super saiyan you keep raving about." King cold waved his hand and a servant was quick to refill his wine glass. This was special red wine from the planet Abarnaca, some of the best wine in all of known space and as a reward the family that makes it had been spared when their planet had been blown up. Now they made wine only for the Cold family. It was all the rage among the lower level troops and it was considered a rare honor to receive a bottle of the special of wine as a reward for good service. King Cold did things slightly different then his son Frizea did, he wasn't as quick to anger or as quick to kill his underlings. He liked to work from the shadows and allow his sons to be the public faces of the PTO, in fact very few people within the PTO knew that he existed. And while both his sons have (or in Frizea's case had) elite bodyguard squadrons, King Cold needed no such thing. He was a force within himself, neither of his son's could even approach him in combat or in terms of raw power. Both of his sons were in their fourth and final forms and King Cold was only in his second form. The reason he didn't transform was he had never really needed to. He had been transformed once in his entire life and he didn't have the greatest control over his third and forth forms.

Less then an hour later they were in Earth's orbit. "This is a nice planet, something about it strikes my heart Frizea. Perhaps we should cleanse this planet of life and sell it after you are done with you. Yes I think that is what will do. Should be a good job for some of our soldiers that are with us on this fine ship. They must be bored from all of the recent space travel. This will give them a chance to stretch their legs a bit."

Frizea sighed but he knew better then to argue with his father. King Cold was the one person that could kick his ass, Goku had just gotten lucky the last time. "It shall be as you command father."

"My lords we just passed a spaceship...a saiyan space pod to be exact. We are about an hour ahead of it, even accounting for the reduced speed that we will need to land" The ship captain explained.

"On your life make sure that it doesn't pass us and land first. That might be Goku and if it is we want to beat him there and kill his friends before he can land. In fact turn on scanners on that pod and see if we can scan the power level there" Frizea ordered.

"Right away, Lord Frizea." The ship captain put in the command to scan the space pod behind them and waited for a result to come up on the screen. "My lords the power level in the pod reads at 150K. That is strong but its nothing compared to the two of you."

"No its him I am sure of it. He must be hiding his true power. Ship captain I want us landing at the max safest speed possible, push the engines if you must. I must reach the planet before that pod."

"At once, my Lord Frizea, increasing speed now."

* * *

Studying basic physics from a textbook his mom had bought him, in his room, while munching on a snack Gohan felt two massive power levels approaching. One of them was Frizea and the other was if anything even stronger and even more evil. He went to get the phone to make a call when it rang on its own. He picked it up. "Hello?"

"Gohan its Krillin. Tell me you feel those incoming powers. It feels like Frizea, but it can't be, your dad killed him. And I don't know what that second power is but it feels just as evil" Krillin said his voice shaking as he spoke. I already alerted the others, the ship is headed to the rocky area, where we fought Vegeta the first time. I will see you there. And Gohan...be strong everything is going to be alright. This is why we have been training while Goku is away." With that Krillin hung up the phone.

Gohan decided to sneak out, slipping on his saiyan armor before he left out a window. He flew in the direction of the rocky area meeting up with the others on the way there. He waved a childish hi to Yamcha, Krillin, and Tien. Off in the distance he saw Piccolo and Vegeta headed their way. The two groups joined up and stopped in the sky to discuss what to do next.

"Look we know that is Frizea and I am pretty sure I know who the other power level is...and I hope for our sakes that I am mistaking it." Vegeta said. "So here is what we are going to do. We are going to suppress our power levels, head to the ground and move as quickly and as silently as possible. We don't want to give off any energy for their scouters to detect. Everyone understand?"

"Who died and made you boss Vegeta?" Yamcha objected.

"I am for a couple of reasons. First and most important is that I am currently the strongest person on this mud ball. Second is that the only reason you are alive is because I need Piccolo and Gohan to help me fight and if I kill you that decreases the chances of them wanting to work with me. I suggest you shut the hell up before I change my mind."

Yamcha blanched but nodded. He knew he didn't have a chance in a stand up fight against Vegeta, however much he wanted to pretend otherwise at times.

"What is the plan once we land Vegeta? We clearly can't fight them head on, not if want to live very long. At the same time we can't let them hurt people here." Krillin put his two cents in.

"We can and will let them hurt people if that is what it takes." Piccolo cut in before another debate could be started. "Remember that we can fix any damage they cause with the dragon balls, as long as we live through this. Vegeta is right as much as I hate to say it. If they discover us before we are ready to strike we are finished. At this point we have to do whatever it takes to win, no matter the cost. Remember that if you head to this fight, you will be expected to lay everything on the line, no one is going to save you once the fight starts."

Seeing that weren't any other objections Vegeta headed to the ground and the others followed. They quickly ran from cover to cover stopping in an area that they could see the incoming ship. They laid down on the rock formation watching the ship land. "Now when I give the word we are going to charge and fire our strongest attacks. We will only have one shot and we must get them all off together. Otherwise we will die."

"Will that work Mr. Piccolo?" Gohan asked his mentor.

"It has a chance at working if everyone does their part. Alone we stand no shot, but together if we can combine our attacks into a single attack we might have enough power to overwhelm Frizea's defenses." Piccolo didn't really think they had much of a chance but he knew that they had to try. Still better not to take the hope away from the others.

"Everyone shut up. The ship is landing. Suppress your power levels." Vegeta ordered.

* * *

"Brace yourself for landing please my lords. We land in two minutes" the ship captain informed King Cold and Frizea.

The spaceship set down in an open area of the rocky lands, its spider legs deployed as landing gear. In fact the ship looked very much like a giant spider when it was landed. A ramp down down from the belly of the ship and a group of soldiers rushed out, scouters over their right eyes and energy blasters at the read. They spread out in a circle around the ship, scouting the area for threats and tapping on their scouters looking for strong power levels. Finding nothing they deployed themselves in a circle around the ship to await further orders from King Cold or Lord Frizea.

Father and son walked down the ramp together and looked around at the planet they were set to conquer and sell. "Yes I can see why this planet would fetch such a high price, look at all this natural beauty." King Cold remarked

"Father please focus. We are here to do a job, not to admire the scenery." Frieza turned to the soldiers who were waiting on further orders. "Spread out, find the nearest settlement and start killing everything there. The quickest way to draw these fools out is to start killing these humans that they share a kin with."

The soldiers started to comply when King Cold stopped a group of 10 of them, the elites of the squadron, whose status was marked only by a red star on the right side of their armor. "You men go into the ship and get the special scanners. When you return you will scan for higher then average power levels on this plant and hunt them down one by one and kill them. I believe that the average power level on this planet is only 5. It shouldn't be hard to find those with above average power levels. If you find any power levels of above 100,000 then communicate those back to us. Your weapons aren't equipped to handle power levels that high." The nodded and headed off.

King Cold didn't like to throw away well trained soldiers and staff unlike his son. It was a waste that shouldn't be done unless it was needed. That cut into the profit of the empire. Which wasn't to say that he didn't make an example from time to time, he just didn't kill on a whim like his son Frieza did.

* * *

The Z-Fighters saw Frieza descend down the ramp along with an unknown person, unknown that is to everyone but Vegeta who felt his blood run cold as he confirmed what he suspected earlier. While Vegeta had only seen him once as a child he could never forget Frieza's father. Most people believed that Frieza ran the PTO but that wasn't the case at all. A select few knew that it was run by his father, who preferred to stay in the shadows. Although Vegeta had only seen him once, he was well aware of the rumors of how powerful he was, rumors that were clearly not rumors at all, but facts. King Cold's power level was massive and now Vegeta knew that he was only in his second form. How much more power was he hiding with two transformations to fall back on? And how exactly were they going to beat both of them? They would be lucky to get one attack off much less two. Vegeta struggled to hide the horror he was feeling, and keep it off his face. He knew he had to let the others in on what he knew.

"Listen closely everyone, the other person with Frieza is King Cold. He is the father of Frieza, and he is even more powerful then Frieza is. Notice that he is only in his second form and his power already tops that of Frieza."

"What is up with Frieza anyway? How did he live, I thought Goku killed him" Yamcha remarked.

"Clearly he didn't finish the job" Piccolo said knowing they didn't have time for games or idol questions.

"He looks like one of those robots you would assemble in those build your own robot models, but its as if a small child put one together without a parent supervising. No offense Gohan, we know your not like normal children" Krillin said trying to inject some humor into the situation.

"None taken. Still it looks like dad really did a number on him if he blew off all the parts that they replaced on him. I wonder how Frieza managed to live through that and the planet exploding?" Gohan answered.

They saw a group of 10 soldiers break off, head back into the ship for a few minutes and come out with a different set of scouters which they put on. The others started to head out in the direction of the nearest city.

"Those that broke off are the elites of the group. They have special weapons that are handed to only the most loyal and trusted. They can snuff out even some of you, so you have to be careful. Only myself, the boy and the Namek can take a direct hit from one of those weapons and not die right out, and it would still be painful for the boy and the Namek. Its most likely that the others are headed to the nearest city to start killing people. That is standard operating protocol. " Vegeta explained, hating to have to be this social with the others but knowing that they needed to know this in order to give the group the best chance."

"We can't let them kill people, we have to stop them!" Krillin exclaimed, feeling his power level rise against his will.

"Keep your power level down you fool!" Vegeta hissed.

The elites looked up and started to move in their direction.

"Its not good they found us because of you. Now we have to deal with them" Vegeta said fury clear on his face. "If I didn't need you I would kill you myself for being such a damn fool."

"You know what Vegeta I am getting tired of your threats." Yamcha said standing up and clinching his fists.

"Quiet both of you, we can't afford to fight among ourselves right now" Piccolo ordered. "Here is what we will do, we are going to ambush them as they come to us. We are still in an area where we can't be seen, so we are going to send Krillin out by himself and we will hide in the shadows, hiding our power levels and then when they move in to attack him we will strike. Now listen this is no time to be nice and hold back to not kill them. We have to take them down hard, because otherwise we put Krillin at risk. We can't flare our powers for more then a few moments so our first strikes must be precise Everyone get into position, Krillin you know what to do. Gohan stay back here a moment I want to have a further word with you."

The group nodded and got ready. Vegeta didn't like to strike from ambush against weaker foes, but he knew this was the best plan, one of he would have suggested himself in fact.

Gohan looked up at Piccolo wondering why he had been held back. Surely Piccolo wasn't going to keep him out of the fight. "What is it Mr. Piccolo? I can fight. I can do my job."

"Gohan listen to me. I know this is going to be hard for you, but you must strike to kill. Your dad sometimes is wrong to show the mercy that he shows. Because of his foolishness Frieza is here threatening the entire planet. We can't afford any more shows of mercy. If you aren't willing to strike to kill then stay back."

"I can handle it Mr. Piccolo." Gohan said.

"Good lets go then."

Both of them got into ambush position joining the others. Krillin flew out closer to the elite soldiers, not bothering to hide his power level anymore. Two of the elites stopped and tapped their scouters to check his power level then adjusted the dial on their energy blaster cannons.

"Say goodbye little man" Elite 1 said.

"Yep say your prayers to whatever puny God you believe in" confirmed Elite 2.

Krillin was struggling not to laugh as they pointed their weapons at him. True they were getting a read on his power level, the only problem for them was it was about half of his true power level. If they fired at full power they might be able to hurt him, but they were assuming their scouters were correct and conserving energy by only doing what they thought was enough damage. Still he stayed put doing his role in this plan. "You boys gonna hurry up and fire? I don't have all day. Got people to meet and things to do in the otherworld."

They grinned and fired while the other elites spread out a bit to watch the show. The blasts converged on Krillin who made no attempt to block or dodge them. Smoke and debris scattered everywhere upon the impact.

"Well that takes care of him" Elite 1 said

"Yep it sure does. He had a big mouth for a little man." Elite 2 said.

* * *

While the other 8 Elites were distracted with the show the other Z-Fighters, and Vegeta moved out from cover to strike at them.

Yamcha struck first using at the one on the far left, Elite 10 "WOLF FANG FIST." Yamcha got into a crouch one hand drawn back and the other held up with elbow bent. He ran forward and a wolf seemed to follow behind him, quickly catching up until Yamcha and the wolf were one blur. He kicked Elite 10 across the face sending him sprawling backwards and then he started to punch the helpless Elite, with hands in the shape of claws. Each strike cut groves into the Elite's face and body, leaving bloody trails behind as if Yamcha had wolf claws instead of normal hands. He drove an elbow into the chest of the Elite, crushing a series of ribs and pushing them inward. Then he put his hands together like he was going fire an energy blast but instead he used them for a final strike to send the Elite flying away to crash into a nearby rock formation. The Elite hit the formation and bounced off, laying unmoving on the ground.

Tien ambushed the Elite 9 and dispatched him with little effort by firing a Dodon Ray that went right through his chest. He moved on to Elite 8 and struck him in the back with a kick, driving him down to the ground. Tien then shot up into the air and dropped back down on the prone Elite with both of his feet driving him further into the ground and cracking the dirt and rocks around the body. Tien took a quick look at the body and saw that he had broken the Elite's neck. "Man they don't make soldiers like they used to."

Piccolo appeared between Elite 7 and Elite 6 and grabbing them one in each hand he bashed them together stunning them and tossing them to the ground. He floated up into the air and raising his hands above his head he shouted out "MASENKO" firing an energy blast that reduced the two Elites to ash.

Elite 5 had his eyes on the beams fired by his squad mates at Krillin when suddenly he felt himself being grabbed and thrown into the air. Standing below him was Vegeta with one arm in the air and his outstretched index and middle finger together. Vegeta flared his aura for a quick second yelling out "FINAL IMPACT." Elite 5 exploded in mid air and bits of his body rained down on the area. He turned to Elite 4 who had noticed his buddy being thrown up into the air and gotten off a snap shot from his blaster cannon at Vegeta only to see it knocked aside by the princes free hand. Vegeta rushed him with a punch to the gut, then a well-placed fist to the face, before following up with a kick in the nose. The elite was almost launched away before Vegeta quickly grabbed his collar, halting his movement."You are hardly worth my time to kill. You call yourself an elite? Ha ha, let me show you what a real elite is capable of." This was in itself a small change in Vegeta, before he had never minded killing those weaker of himself. Vegeta knew that this damn planet was starting to rub off on him and that he needed to get back out into space as soon as possible.

"Vegeta please, I have to do what I am told or Lord Frieza will kill me. Please you worked for him...you have to understand" the Elite pleaded.

"Oh I understand. I understand that Frieza blew up my planet, enslaved my people and treated me like shit for most of my life. And I can bet that he did the same to you and your people. The difference is that I had the guts to rebel against him while you have the balls of a sand flea. " Vegeta answered gathering energy in his free hand and placing that hand up against the chest of Elite 4 who struggled in vain to get away. "Die now" he said as he fired the energy blast through Elite 4.

Gohan was hovering in the air above his target, Elite number 3 and the young saiyan had no taste for killing but he knew that sometimes there was no choice but to kill, and this was one of those times as Piccolo said. He held one hand straight out like he had seen his mentor do against him in a recent training session. "EXPLOSIVE DEMON WAVE" And thus was his target turned into dust.

The Z-Fighters and Vegeta faded back into the shadows after they took care of the rest of the elite squad. All of this happened in the roughly half a minute that it took the beams to reach Krillin and explode against him, and then for the smoke to clear to show Krillin standing there arms crossed in front of his head but otherwise unharmed. Krillin quickly charged up a Ki blast in each hand and shooting them at Elite 1 and Elite 2 reduced them to dust before they could properly express their shock that he was still alive and before they could think to call it in on their scouters.

They didn't pull this off totally undetected though, as one of the techs in the ships noticed the spikes of some power levels for a few seconds in an area near the ship and reported it to Frieza and King Cold.

* * *

"Father that has to be them. We should go check it out." Frieza said as he rose up into air. Just as he was about to leave his scouter beeped rapidly showing a high power level had just arrived in the area. Frieza watched as the numbers rose rapidly, first with amusement then with growing horror. 1 million, 3 million, 5 million, 10 million, 15 million, 20 million. It had to be, it had to be him...that damn monkey. But how? They had a couple of hours on him. He should still be up in space. Frieza resolved to kill the new ship captain slowly and painfully for getting this important bit of info wrong.

King Cold watched the numbers rising on his scouter with an air of disbelief, there shouldn't be anyone this strong outside of his family. Surely the super saiyan his son had ranted about was just a legend. But how else to explain this power than? But no...wait he thought back to his great great great grandfather, Chilled who according to the few troops that had lived that day had died at the hands of a so called super saiyan. The tale was discounted because it wasn't until much later that the PTO forces had stumbled across planet Vegeta in the first place. But what...what if it was true after all?

Goku appeared right to the side of Frieza using instant transmission that he had learned in space. "Still up to no good I see Frieza. Monsters like you never seem to learn that its wrong to hurt people who don't deserve it and that someone like me will always rise up to stop you. I will give you one chance. Recall your troops and leave this planet. Now or I will be forced to do something I don't really want to do."

"You...you...I will kill you!" Frieza said the earth shaking as he yelled bringing all of his power to the forefront.

"Frieza please you are going to shake this planet apart, and with us still on it." King Cold implored. There were ways to power up that didn't involve shaking the planet but clearly his son still hadn't learned them. And if was a super saiyan he didn't look that impressive. In fact he looked just like a normal saiyan did. The strongest known saiyan sure, but nothing that his son shouldn't have been able to handle.

* * *

Hiding nearby, Gohan was the first to look in the direction in which his father his just appeared. "Daddy! Daddy is back. We are saved." Gohan flared his aura up, white appearing around him as he flew off to meet his dad.

"Gohan wait it might not be safe." Piccolo said making a grab for him but missing and sighing as he followed behind the boy he cared deeply about.

Krillin looked at Gohan and then in the direction that Gohan was heading off "Yep that is Goku alright." He also flew off to meet him along with Yamcha and Tien.

"No I refuse to believe its him. How could he possibly have gotten this strong." Vegeta stated as he followed the others, although he knew it was Goku. He knew the feel of that energy.

Piccolo stopped Tien and Yamcha when they caught up with the group. "You two go hunt down the other soldiers and kill them before they can harm any more people." They nodded and flew off in the direction that the soldiers had gone before.

* * *

_A/N: And so we have reached the end of Chapter 1. Next chapter will have Goku's fight with Frieza and King Cold. We never got to see it in canon so I am going to enjoy writing it now. Sorry for the small amount of fights in this chapter, the action will pick up next chapter I promise. Please leave reviews, and I will attempt to answer them at the end of the next chapter. Remember that reviews feed the fire of writers, so take a couple of minutes to leave some comments. Let me know if what you think about the chapter length. I can do longer chapters with slower updates or shorter chapters with faster updates if people want. Check my profile for updates on story progress. _

_Updated 12/10/2013_


	2. Chapter 2-Warrior

**Future Saga**

**Chapter 2- Warrior**

_Disclaimer: I own nothing._

August , Age 774 Future Timeline

Tien turned to Yamcha while they were flying to the nearest city. "You should head back where it's safe, it is a lot safer with Goku then it is in the city with me."

"Are you saying I can't take care of myself?" Yamcha questioned his friend.

"That isn't what I am saying...ok …yes it is. You would be fine against grunts but we don't know the true power of what they sent to the city. Look, the truth Yamcha is that you haven't trained since we got wished back to life. You are skills are rusty, look how long it took you to take out that "elite" who was far below your power level. With An open city with people around, that rust could lead to a lot of deaths. And I know we can wish them back with the dragon balls but we need to stop treating them as an excuse to not be at our best. You are not at your best and I don't want to risk you or others because of it. Please head back. I can handle this myself" Tien hovered with his arms crossed, a serious expression on his face. "Also we can't wish you back since we have already done so. I would feel horrible if anything happened to you."

At first Yamcha was angry at Tien, but after stopping to consider what he said he nodded. "Fine I'll head back. Good luck Tien, and remember just flare your power level a couple of times if you need help and we'll come to your aid." Yamcha turned around and headed back. When he arrived Goku was still ordering Frieza to get off the planet. He settled in stance right behind Gohan, to get the best view of the events going on. He hadn't seen Goku's super saiyan form but had heard stories from Gohan and was eager to see it.

"I am not only going to kill you Goku, but I am going to kill everyone you care about. Before I let you die you will watch them destroyed in the most painful ways that I can think of in front of your eyes" Frieza promised Goku. He raised a hand showing a charged Ki blast that he shot at Vegeta. Goku moved in a flash, putting two fingers to his forehead and vanishing only to appear in front of Vegeta with his arms crossed, taking the blast with a large explosion of dust and debris.

"Ha ha you monkeys are all the same, so easily fooled." Frieza shot a Death Beam from the extended index finger of his other hand right at Gohan while Goku was busy blocking the blast against Vegeta.

Not even Goku could move fast enough to save his son. Piccolo tensed himself to jump in front of the beam once again to save Gohan but before he could Yamcha appeared from behind Gohan to jump in front of the Death Beam intending to swat it away.

Yamcha didn't account for the fact that it was a piercing attack, like the Special Beam Cannon and could go right through most attempts to block it or knock it away. All of those times that Goku had stood up for him, he had never really been able to repay all those favors, and now he was getting the chance to by saving Gohan. He appeared in front of Gohan powered up, his blue aura shining. He tried to swat the Death Beam away with his hand but it went right through his palm and then right through his chest causing him to fall to the ground bleeding.

Vegeta moved as soon as he saw the blast heading his way, knowing that he wasn't Frieza's true target. That blast wasn't strong enough to kill him or even seriously wound him at his current power level which he wasn't making any effort to hide. He had seen Frieza play this game before and he knew that he liked to inflict the max possible pain on his victims before killing them. And he knew not all pain was physical. The way to hurt Goku the most would be to kill his son. Vegeta wanted to fight Goku at his best. Thus he was already pushing Gohan out of the way as the Death Beam headed his way, just like he had done on Namek.

Gohan rolled over in the dirt before getting back on his feet, seeing that it was Vegeta that had pushed him out of the way. Gohan didn't like Vegeta at all, but his upbringing had raised him to be polite and Vegeta had just saved his life. "Thank you Mr. Vegeta for… saving my life."

"Stuff it brat. I didn't save you because I wanted to. I saved you because when I fight your circus clown of a father I don't want him held back because he's in mourning over your death."

Meanwhile Goku had seen both the actions of Yamcha and Vegeta to save his son and seen Yamcha fall and sensed his energy drop to nothing. Goku knew that Yamcha was dead. And Yamcha was one of his older friends who just gave everything to save his son. He felt his control slipping again, he was seeing red. "You...you..." and then it snapped and Goku transformed into a super saiyan with a yell.

King Cold watched the transformation without any visible reaction on his face until his scouter began to beep urgently again. He watched the numbers rise on the screen. 50 million, 100 million, 150 million and still rising. The scouter exploded not being able to handle units over 150 million units. So this was the super saiyan that his son had talked so much about. And everything he had said appeared to be true. It looked like he should be ready to step in, just in case he was needed. He wasn't truly worried about his ability to defeat Goku, since he still had two transformations himself to turn to if need be, but this wasn't going to be the cake walk that he had expected. He put a smile on his face and clapped his hands drawing everyone's attention to him. "Well I must say the light show is very impressive. But can you do anything other than light up an area? That remains to be seen yes."

Gohan was standing over Yamcha looking at the body of the man who had just tried to save his life, the man that had spent considerable time with him since his father had been away, the man that he had called a friend and he too felt his anger growing and. In the past he had used the blind anger as a key to reach in and grab the hidden pool of power that was deep within him. Only this time was different, he was aware of the power within and was drawing it out with some degree of control. Piccolo had been training him recently a bit physically, but had been training his mind much more, teaching him to gain control of his hidden powers and now that effort was staring to pay off. Gohan was able to access more power than he ever had before and his aura shined bright as he rose up into the air and started to charge up an attack.

"Gohan stand down. Let me handle this" Goku ordered.

Gohan didn't listen as he was lost in the power that his anger was providing him. He was going to kill both Frieza and his father in one single blast and the effects on the planet be damned, they could fix the damage to the planet with the dragon balls. Sparks grew around his hands as his aura flared red-white now and rocks rising up in the air around him were crushed, only to have bigger and bigger rocks rise off the ground as the process repeated itself and Gohan kept charging power. Gohan started to scream as his power grew and grew.

Vegeta was shocked by the amount of power that Gohan was drawing. "That isn't possible, the brat is drawing out even more power than I have. How? How is it possible that he is stronger than me? First his father and now him? Is he about to transform into a super saiyan as well?

Shit. Piccolo thought. At the rate Gohan is going he is going to kill himself and take the planet with him. If he fires off that energy blast out of control he will hit the core of the planet. And still as he watched Gohan drew more power into him. This was out of hand. Gohan wasn't ready to handle this level of power, his body couldn't handle it for long, he was going to drain himself dry and his mind wasn't up to controlling this kind of power. Piccolo knew that he had to act so he also rose up into the air, getting as close as he could to Gohan. "Gohan your dad is right, stand down and let him handle it." He flew closer trying to be able to knock Gohan out if need be, but Gohan's aura and rapidly building energy blew him back away.

"No! He killed Yamcha and now he's going to die and I am going to kill him!" Gohan's aura started to spark gold, as his eyes quickly changed to teal green before changing back to their normal color. His hair stood up and also flashed to gold before fading back to black. "He just thinks that he can hurt people, hurt my friends over and over again and get away with it. That no one can stand up to him. Well no more. I have had ENOUGH!" On that final word his hair flashed gold again.

Frieza watched in horror as Gohan rose up and as the same scene from Namek seemed to be playing itself out again in front of his eyes. Goku transforming had happened much like this. He couldn't beat one super saiyan last time how was he going to be able to handle two?

Gohan hair flashed one more time between black and gold before his aura vanished and he fell out of the sky. He had attempted to access more power than his body was capable of handling and it knocked him out. Piccolo caught him gently in his arms and floated with him to the ground and slowly laid him down on the ground. The other fighters, save Goku who was busy watching Frieza and Vegeta who didn't really care gathered around Gohan. "Back off everyone, give him space. He will be fine he just pushed himself past his limits" Piccolo said. "In fact Krillin do you want to take Gohan home so he's out of danger?"

"Wait a minute no one is leaving unless I say they can leave" Frieza objected.

"Shut up. I will take care of you in a minute" Goku stated.

Frieza started to raise his hand again to shoot another Death Beam only to have Goku vanish and appear right in front of him. Goku grabbed his hand and squeezed crushing all of the bones in Frieza's hand causing the tyrant to scream out in pain. "You couldn't beat me before and I am much stronger now. How do you expect to win? Now get off my planet. Final warning."

The other fighters were amazed that even after everything that had transpired Goku was really willing to let them go. Frieza tried to strike with his tail only to have Goku block it with his forearm and then grab Frieza's tail and with a hard yank pull it off. Blood poured from the wound as the tail sparked on the ground. Frieza fell to his knees. "Now leave. Or I will finish this."

"Frieza!" King Cold cried out, unable to believe what was happening to his son before his eyes. His hands clenched into fists and he blasted off trying to strike before Goku could get his guard up only to have Goku vanish when he swung at him and appear above him slamming him into the ground with a double handed smash.

"I have given you repeated chances to repent and repeated chances to leave, yet you keep trying to hurt my friends and my family. Not anymore you are out of chances. This time I will finish the job." Floating in the air cupped his hands together to his side and charged a blue beam between them. "KAMEHAMEHA" He fired the wave at Frizea, totally consuming him in the beam. A massive amount of debris and dust was kicked up.

Everyone waited to see what the result would be and when the smoke cleared the only thing left of Frieza was a few metal pieces.

"You killed my son. You are going to pay with your life, and the lives of everyone on this planet for this" King Cold said gathering his energy and getting ready to transform. It was clear to him at he would need at least his third form to defeat Goku. He laughed as the transformation began. "Just wait until you get a load of my third form. You think I am powerful now, you haven't seen anything yet."

Goku shook his head at King Cold's statement, flaring his aura and powering up to charge another Kamehameha wave. "No you have hurt my friends and my family and threatened the lives of everyone on this planet. I am tired of being nice and I am done giving chances. You are not transforming, I will kill you before I allow that." Goku knew that he couldn't risk King Cold being stronger than him after he transformed.

But Goku by speaking instead of acting allowed King Cold to finish his transformation and he laughed as the horns grew out of his head to cover part of his back. He looked a lot like Frieza had in his 3rd form, only with a vastly higher power level. "Now Goku, now you will die and your planet along with you. You see I can transform a lot quicker than my son ever could." King Cold charged at Goku trying to pound him into the ground. Goku let his energy attack fade meeting King Cold fist to fist as the two meet in blur of attacks with no apparent edge going to either fighter. Finally Goku smashed his elbow into King Cold's chest driving him back and opening him for what appeared to the other Z-Fighters to be a single punch that knocked him into a rock formation, where he got stuck for a moment before falling to the ground face down and not moving.

Goku felt his saiyan blood singing in his system and he tried to repress the urge to allow a good fight before finishing the deal. "You call this a power boost? Is this really all that you have? It's nowhere near enough to beat me. You might as will quit now cause you can't even touch me." It was true, in the last minute Goku had blocked or dodged every single attempt to even connect with him, and the single blow that he had stuck had opened King Cold to a series of blows. All of Goku's strikes had happened so fast that it appeared to only be a single hit. It had been in fact six punches all in the exact same spot.

Gohan had woken up a couple of minutes before and had been watching his father fight. His eyes had tracked all of the movements with very little problem and he knew a finished fight when he saw one. His dad had this!

King Cold struggled to his feet raising a hand palm up. An energy ball appeared above his hand and started to expand then it vanished as Goku struck him in the back with an elbow, kicked him up into the air and then blasting him with a Full Power Energy Wave. 30 seconds later King Cold hit the ground with a loud thump and didn't move. Goku knew the fight wasn't over though because King Cold was still putting out some energy.

He rose up into the air. "KA-ME-HA-ME-HA" and thus did the threat to the Earth come to an end. Goku threw a small blast of energy into the ship blowing it up. He let his aura die down and his hair returned to black.

"Daddy that was amazing!" Gohan said jumping into his dads arms as Goku landed on the ground.

"Thanks kiddo. You almost became a super saiyan though and at your age."

"I was really mad daddy over Yamcha dying. He died to save me why did he do that? I got angry like I used to before but it kept going and I felt like I was about to snap. Then the next thing I know I was on the ground with Mr. Piccolo standing over me."

"I know I was as well. It was really good of him to do that and I am glad that he did. Listen Gohan, snapping is the key to transforming, you have to allow yourself to let it all go. When I transform now I think about my anger the first time it happened. Now I almost have it to the point that I can do it at will. Don't worry Gohan I will help train you and you will be a super saiyan like your daddy in no time."

The rest of the Z-Fighters began to gather around. Look I know that all of you have a lot of questions, and I will answer them in time. But I want to take Gohan home, see my wife and get some food in me. All of this fighting has made me hungry. What do you say that we meet up in a couple of days and I will answer all your questions. Brace yourself Gohan, we are about to go home in style." Goku placed on hand on Gohan's shoulder and then lifted two fingers to his forward with the other. He found Chi-Chi's energy and focused.

* * *

They vanished and appeared in front of Chi-Chi causing her to curse and drop the dishes she had been washing.

"What the hell." Her tone changed as she saw who it was in front of her. "Goku! Your back. Where did you come from, how did you do that?" Chi-Chi ran over and gave Goku a big hug. "It's been a year, I have been waiting an entire year for you to come home Goku. Ever since we tried to wish you back with the dragon balls and found out that you were still alive and didn't wish to come home. An entire year Goku. Do you know how that feels to know that your husband is alive but he doesn't want to come home? What could you have been doing that was more important than coming home to me and Gohan?"

Goku returned the hug, holding his wife tightly. He smiled at her, she was exactly as he remembered, the mix of joy and anger that summed up who Chi-Chi was. They had many a disagreement over the extent that Gohan was allowed to be trained.

"Well you see Chi-Chi I crash landed on another planet. I guess that the space pod that I escaped in was programed to go there next. I found a very nice group of people that helped nurse me back to health. I would have left as soon as I got healthy but they had a couple of problems that I needed to deal with first. Some of Frieza's fighters came there to try and stir up trouble and I took care of them. Also while I was there they taught me this really cool move, called Instant Transmission. It allows me to focus on the energy of any person or planet of people and appear there in an instant. I used it to reach the planet in time to fight and kill Frieza and his father and I used it just a few minutes ago to bring myself and Gohan home. I can also use it to move to places that I know well."

"And you got Gohan involved in that? Look at him. He looks like hell Goku."

"I didn't get him involved, I kept him out of it. The reason he looks like that is because he almost transformed into a super saiyan like I am and I had to tell him to calm down and not try to transform. Goku decided it was a good idea to leave out the part about Gohan's body struggling to handle it and the boy being knocked out.

Chi-Chi nodded at his words letting Goku go from the hug before turning her attention to Gohan. "And you mister, you ran off without telling me, and I was worried sick. We are going to have a talk about your behavior."

"Chi-Chi can we talk about this while we eat? I am really hungry and your food smells good." Goku asked childishly.

Chi-Chi broke into a small smile, same old Goku. That smile vanished when she looked back at Gohan. His clothes were torn and he was all dirty. "Oh fine Goku we will eat, but after we eat I want everything explained and that includes why Gohan thinks he can just run off and do what he pleases. I know how strong he thinks he is but he's still my little boy and I just won't stand for it."

Gohan gulped as his mother's glare was turned on him. No one, no matter how strong they were crossed Chi-Chi.

The family sat down to eat, and slowly life returned to normal, that is until Goku started to get sick.

* * *

At first when Goku started to get sick, no one was worried, they figured he would fight it off pretty quickly. But soon his sickness reached the point that he struggled to get out of bed. It was at that point that Bulma gathered the world's best doctors to respond to her best friend's sickness. The doctors discovered that Goku had a heart virus and through further testing Bulma discovered that it seemed to affect super saiyans worse than others who had it. It was almost like someone had tailored the virus just to attack Goku, but Bulma couldn't figure who that might be so she put aside that line of thought and focused all of her efforts into helping her friend.

All of the resources of Capsule Corporation couldn't save Goku in the end though, he was dying. The z-fighters gathered around his bed to wish him goodbye, tears running down their faces. Even Vegeta showed up, though he waited outside. Gohan raced through the woods near his house to reach home as he felt his dads fading energy signal. He arrived just in time to hear Goku's final words. "Gohan you must protect the world now, and take care of your mother."

Gohan clung to his mother, tears streaming down his face as Goku closed his eyes for the final time. Inside the boy was torn to shreds. He just couldn't believe that his father was gone, and so suddenly. Till the very end Gohan had believed that his father would beat this. This feeling had been feed by the adults in his life, none of whom told him the truth about how serious it was for his father.

Outside Vegeta was stunned, surely no virus could take down a super saiyan, but yet here it had happened. He had been training so hard to surpass and defeat Goku and now he was never going to get his chance. Vegeta pounded the ground outside in frustration it just wasn't fair that he was denied the chance to defeat Goku. Vegeta headed into space later that same day.

* * *

_A/N: That brings chapter 2 to a close. Just like in the Future timeline that we know from DBZ, Goku dies here of a heart virus, meaning he can't be wished back with the dragon balls. Next chapter brings the coming of the Androids and the Z-Fighters first fights with them. Thanks once again to my beta reader RoxaShadow who is writing a Future Gohan story that everyone should go read called The Legend of Future Gohan._

Updated- 12/10/2013


	3. Chapter 3-I Scream For Androids

**Future Saga**

**Chapter 3- I Scream for Androids**

_A/N: This chapter is rated M, it contains graphic language and images. On another note, I finally figured out that in order to keep the formatting that I set up with Open Office, I have to use the Copy-N-Paste option instead of using the File Upload, because when you upload the file through File Upload it messes with your formatting. Some people had complained to me about the lack of line breaks in my chapters and now I know why they weren't making it to what you the readers see. The chapters should read much smoother from now on and I will be going back and correcting chapters 1 and 2. _

May 12th, Age 767 Future Timeline

Six months have passed since the world had lost its greatest hero. Goku passed away from a heart virus despite the best efforts of the world's best doctors.

Ever since he had almost gone SSJ in the fight vs Frieza, Gohan had been struggling to try and reach the form and get that breakthrough, without result. His dad had told him not to worry about it because SSJ comes in response to a need not in response to a want. The important thing was that he had the power to transform in him and that he would be able to do so when it was needed.

For the six months following his father's death Gohan attempted to heed his father's last words, doing everything his mother required of him school wise, while still finding time to train like his father had asked. Gohan knew that if it came down to it that he had to protect the world, just like his dad would have done. He was out chopping wood using only his hands as part of his ongoing training when he heard his mom calling him from outside.

"Gohan phone call honey. Krillin is on the phone for you. He says it is urgent" Chi-Chi called out to her son, her pride and joy as she stood in the doorway of their home. Sure she pushed him hard, but that was because she wanted him to be more than just a fighter. She wanted him to make a difference with his mind and not just his bad. Still she had relaxed a lot since Goku had died, both out of grief and because she was in her own way honoring Goku's final wish. Still things were so peaceful and she just didn't see a reason that Gohan should be able to train all day and not study like she knew he wanted to do.

"Thanks mom" Gohan said as he headed inside. What could be so urgent Gohan wondered. He picked up the phone "Hey Krillin what's going on?"

"You don't know? Turn on your T.V. Someone is attacking West City. Tien is already there looking around. The rest of us are going to get together with him and put a stop to it, whoever or whatever is causing it."

Gohan turned around and flipped on the T.V. "You don't know who is causing it? But can't you feel their energy?" Gohan extended his senses looking for strong power levels. After a few minutes of searching all he felt in the West City area was Tien's. He felt his mentor's energy heading in the direction of West City from the lookout. Had Vegeta gone crazy or something? But no, his energy was calm.

"No, its really strange, its like whoever is causing this has no Ki. And the military is getting its butt handed to it, but the only ones capable of that are people like us" Krillin answered him.

Gohan stopped to watch the latest on T.V. ,before responding to Krillin.

"_Reporting live from West City for KBG-10 news, I am Dolly Andrews. And I am horrified to report that two monsters are wreaking havoc in downtown West City. The Royal Army in conjunction with the local West City Police Department are attempting to stop them but so far none of their weapons have had any affect. Witness reports describe the two monsters as a teenage boy with black hair, wearing a black shirt with a red R R logo on it, along with blue jeans and an orange handkerchief around his neck. The other monster is a teenager girl with a blue jacket top on and blue jeans. She has blond hair and they have been heard to refer to each other as brother and sister. She also has the red RR logo on her jacket. They have some kind of unknown energy weapons that allow them to blow up buildings, along with some kind of new body armor that makes them immune to the weapons that the Royal Army has used on them thus far. Sources inside the Royal Army tell us that tactical nukes are being considered as a solution once they step outside of the city limits. Be advised that everyone in the city should head to the nearest fallout shelter if they hear the alarm go off. We will put a map up on the screen with all of the fallout shelter locations. Stay tuned right here for all of the latest updates."_

_She walked forward as she spotted the Androids trying to get a closer shot of what was going on for the T.V station. "Currently it is unknown exactly what they want or why they are doing what they are doing. They haven't submitted any demands as to what it would take for them to stop their rampage. Currently almost one fourth of the city has been demolished by these monsters. If you see them please call 911. Stay away from them, they are armed and extremely dangerous. I am putting myself on the line just like our brave soldiers are so that I can keep you up to date with all of the current news. In fact here they are right now...oh shit!..."_

A bright yellow light filled the screen and and explosion could be heard in the background. The next clear shot was of the two androids standing over the recording device and looking down into it. "If we knew we were going to be on film we would have dressed up. What do you think Sis?" Android 17 said with an evil grin as he crushed the recording device.

"I think that you should stop stalling, I got things I want to do today, other than blow up this city you know. I need some new clothes, the bullets have torn some holes in my current clothes. Besides if we are going to be on T.V then we should dress nicer. We wouldn't want to give our fans the wrong impression." 18 replied to him.

The two androids flew off into the distance.

* * *

The multicolored fan logo of KBG-10 appeared on the screen as Gohan flipped off the T.V. "Alright I will be ready in five minutes to meet you Krillin. Just let me get my armor on." Gohan hung up the phone, headed back into his room pulling the saiyan armor out of a chest. He slipped it on over his head, checking to see if it still fit snugly. It did.

"Mom I am heading out for a bit" Gohan flared up his white aura and left flying out the window before Chichi could protest or ask any questions about where he was going. He met up with Krillin about halfway to West City. They paused just outside of the city when they felt a power level spike and then start to fade rapidly.

"That kid, he is going to be in for it when he gets back home." Chi Chi muttered to herself. With Goku gone it was really hard to prevent Gohan from just leaving like that. All she could do is deal with it when he got back. She started to cook as she waited, Gohan would be hungry when he got back.

Gohan stopped flying as he felt a strong power level rising and then falling. "That is Mr. Piccolo but who is he fighting? I can't feel any strong power levels near him. "

"I don't know Gohan but his power is dropping quickly so we better hurry" Krillin answered him. They increased the speed that they were flying at in an effort to arrive quicker. Upon arriving they saw Piccolo get kicked through a nearby building by Android 18. Gohan started to rush in to save his mentor but Krillin stopped him. "Wait. Gohan don't you notice what is going on? They aren't putting out any energy and yet they are still kicking the crap out of Piccolo. They must be some kind of machine meaning that we aren't going to be able to sense their movements because they have no Ki for us to sense. So we are going to have to be able to follow their movements with our eyes which means that we are going to have to be extra careful. I don't think they have noticed us yet so maybe we should try and sneak up on them. Lets circle around them while they are distracted. They way I see we are only going to get one shot at this, so no holding back alright Gohan?"

Gohan nodded "I won't hold back," and they flew through the city taking the long way around to come up behind the Androids, weaving around buildings as needed. They watched as Android 18 caught a punch from Piccolo and grabbed his arm ripping it off with a sharp yank. Gohan almost lost it hearing Piccolo's scream. "That's enough! I refuse to sit and watch any longer." He clinched his fists together tightly as he spoke. His aura flared a bright white as his power climbed rapidly.

Krillin started to charge up a Destructo Disk as Gohan rushed into the battle, taking Android 18 by surprise with the energy blast that he threw her way. She got knocked down as the energy hit her directly in the back and exploded. Getting up, she flew through the cloud of smoke caused by the explosion and punched Gohan in the face sending him flying backwards through the air. She appeared below him and kicked him higher up into the air before flying above him and smashing him into the street with a double overhand strike. She landed and started to walk over to the crater that he was laying in raising one hand and charging an energy blast. "You ruined my clothes you jerk. I liked these clothes. Now I have to get new ones. You are going to suffer little boy."

Caught defenseless by Android 18's attacks,Gohan lay twitching in the crater as a result of them. Ouch that didn't go as he expected it to. He hadn't been hit that hard since he had fought Frieza. He groaned as he struggled to get back on his feet. Once again the power that he had moments ago had vanished. He tried to recall it by replaying the scene of Piccolo having his arm ripped off over and over again in his head but his body wasn't responding like he wanted it to.

Piccolo appeared in front of Gohan. He had used the time that Gohan had bought him to regrow his arm. He raised his hands above his head, palms out one hand over the other. Energy started to build in his hands. "If you want Gohan you are going to have to go through me."

Android 18 smirked at him, "You again? Sure I will gladly go through you."

* * *

Meanwhile Tien had shown up and was exchanging blows with Android 17. For the first couple of minutes it seemed like he was fighting evenly with the Android until 17 kicked him in the gut stunning him for a moment. After being blasted back by Android 17 Tien raised his hand pointing a finger forward. "DODON RAY!." A yellow energy beam struck Android 17 without affect. The Android advance forward slowly, not even bothering to keep his defenses up.

"Is that the best you can do Tien? You are so weak that you aren't even any fun."

Shit. I am going to need to go all out, he didn't even seem to feel that. Very well then. Tien once again raised his hand quickly charging energy as he slowly floated up into the air.

Android 17 stopped moving and looked up at him, wondering what exactly he was trying to pull. "Well seems like you have a bit of fight in you still. Bring it on. Go on I will give you one free shot. Its not like you can hurt me anyway."

Motherfucker he is mocking me, Tien thought. Well I am going to make him pay for that. Let's see him get a load of this attack. He bent his elbow down as he charged the attack on the tip of his index finger. When the attack was fully charged he he drew his arm back and thrust his hand forward firing the yellow-orange energy beam at Android 17. "NEO DODON RAY!"

Android 17 laughed as the energy beam approached him, waving a hand out as it struck and casually knocking the beam away into a nearby building which went right through the support structures of the building causing it to cave in on itself. "You aren't even worth my time Tien. Killing small children is more fun than fighting you. So why don't we just finish this? PHOTON FLASH!" A large yellow energy sphere shot from his hand going right through the chest cavity of Tien and causing his heart to explode as he fell out of the sky and to the ground. Tien's energy dropped to nothing.

* * *

Krillin headed over to where he felt Tien's energy fading. "You...you...you monster!" Krillin shouted. "You killed Tien and now you are going to pay you bastard. He let the Destructo Disk fly aiming it at the head of Android 17. The cutting disc managed to cut a few hairs off of Android 17's head as he dodged the attack before slicing through a series of buildings off in the distance.

"Those don't grow back you know." He started to charge the same attack that he killed Tien with but he was blindsided by a double kick in his back from Vegeta that sent him flying over Krillin's head and into a nearby car that had thus far not been blown up and now was crushed by Android 17 landing on it.

Krillin looked on in shock at Vegeta's actions. "Vegeta you saved me. Why?"

"I didn't save you because I think you are worth anything, I saved you because someone has to be around that can understand and look upon my power with the awe that it deserves. You see I too have reached the legendary status. I have become..."

"FULL POWER ENERGY WAVE!" Android 17 screamed as he shot an energy wave out of his hand blowing Vegeta back through a park and through a series of trees before he finally came to a stop in what remained of a childrens playground with energy burned bodies of children and their parents scattered across the playground and the park. Some of the children looked like they had their necks broken instead of being blasted by energy. In fact had Vegeta had more than a couple of seconds to study the scene he would have noted that it was likely that those children had been killed in front of their parents. Also scattered around the scene were bullet casings, indicating that someone had tried to shoot one or both of the Androids to protect the children and themselves. Vegeta didn't have that time however because Android 17 was right on top of him, picking him up and flinging him up into the air, following that up by punching and kicking him in midair. Over and over again he struck Vegeta venting his anger before finally tossing Vegeta to the side to land in the street with a giant boom. It was just one more crater in the street.

Figuring that was the end of Vegeta, Android 17 turned his attention back to Krillin who had taken the chance to vanish out of the Android's sight while he had been distracted. While Android 17 searched for Krillin, Vegeta rose up behind him, exploding dirt and street all around him as he powered up. The Android didn't see Vegeta transform into a SSJ because his back was turned as he searched the area for Krillin.

As Vegeta approached Android 17 he spoke. "I can't sense your energy so you must be some sort of machine. Not that it matters as you will suffer death at the hands of the prince of all saiyans. I have surpassed Goku and regained my rightful place as the strongest warrior alive. It is too bad that clown isn't alive to watch me smash you into pieces. "

Android 17 spun around upon hearing Vegeta's voice. He wasn't impressed at all by Vegeta's boosting though he was intrigued by the golden hair. How exactly had Vegeta's hair gone from black to gold? He knew from his files that Vegeta had black hair. Android 17 was only half listening to Vegeta until he heard that Goku was dead. "Yes I am an Android, I was created by Dr. Gero to kill Goku." Android 17 started to go on but then he caught what Vegeta had just said. "Wait back up...did you just say that Goku was dead?" Upon seeing Vegeta's curt nod he went on. "That explains why he didn't show up when we started attacking this city. Our files say that he fights for the good of the common people."

"I assure you that I fight only for my strength and that is why I will claim victory. Are you ready to be turned into a scrap heap? They can use your parts to rebuild the damage you have done. That is if I leave enough of you to even be used for parts." It wasn't that Vegeta cared about the damage because he didn't. He had done far worse to other planets. Vegeta liked to taunt his foes and get inside their heads if possible. He was trying to figure out how the fact that he couldn't sense his foes energy would change things. Did this Android have some sort of built in scouter for sensing his power levels? Things would have to be handled very carefully if this Android could track his energy but not the other way around. But then it didn't appear that the Android had sensed his massive increase in power when he transformed so maybe it didn't have a way to track energy either. There had to be a way to test this theory out. Vegeta's attention was snapped back to the battle by Android's 17 words.

"I guess since Goku is dead I will have to settle for killing you instead. It won't be quite as satisfying but at least it will be something."

"What? Settle for me? Look you piece of junk, your circuits must be broken if you think that you stand a chance against me. I will even give you the first blow." Vegeta believed that while this was a tough foe, this android was nothing against his super saiyan powers. He got into his fighting stance and with one hand waved Android 17 forward.

The wind blew behind Vegeta as he waited on Android 17 to make the first move. The wind picked up the closer it got to Vegeta and his super saiyan golden aura. Small debris blew past and chunks of the pavement were crushed inward as he stood on them. "Well are you going to fight me? I haven't got all day you know."

"If you are so eager to die then I will grant you wish. I don't know why you think that changing your hair color will make the slightest bit of difference." Android 17 charged forward throwing a series of punches at Vegeta. They were all blocked easily by the saiyan prince before he countered with an elbow to the gut of of Android 17, sending him staggering back a few steps. Vegeta followed that up with an uppercut that knocked Android 17 into the air.

"I am going to pound you into scrap Android." Vegeta unleashed a furious combo of punches and kicks pummeling the helpless Android while he was stunned in midair. Finally he threw the Android up into the air flaring his aura and extending one hand up into the sky he unleashed a Big Bang Attack at Android 17. A massive explosion filled the air and smoke spread out everywhere blanketing the sky even more then the smoke from all of the burning buildings had already done so.

Vegeta waited with his arms crossed as he floated in midair. He was unsure if that last attack was enough to finish Android 17 off, because he couldn't sense any energy from the Android or see him through the smoke.

* * *

Piccolo staggered back as he got an elbow to the face from Android 18. The section of the city that they had been fighting in was even more beat up then the other areas that that the Androids had been attacking before they got interrupted by the Z-Fighters. At first Piccolo had thought that he had an outside chance at winning but as the fight went it was clear to him that Android 18 was toying with him. Still he couldn't try and run away because he was the only thing standing between the Android and Gohan. And he couldn't leave Gohan.

"What's wrong? You seem to be getting tired Piccolo. Does that mean that our engagement is coming to an end so soon? After you are gone then all that will remain is for me to decide how to kill Gohan." She paused with a smile breaking out on her face. "Or I have an idea, You can tell me where Goku is and why he hasn't shown up to save the people of this city. We thought that attacking the largest city was a sure way to draw him out. Tell me and I will let you live and we will leave this city alone. That seems like a pretty fair offer to me. What do you say?" She saw Piccolo's face get clouded up and smiled again. "Oh silly me I left something out didn't I? We will also spare Gohan since you care about him so much. You seem willing to die for him again."

Piccolo considered telling the truth right off but he knew that he had to stall for time as much as possible until Gohan got back on his feet. He remembered what had happened a couple of years ago against Frieza and King Cold when Gohan had gotten angry. He had almost done it and Piccolo had heard from Gohan about his frustrations about his inability to become a super saiyan and also what Goku had said about it. The way Piccolo saw this was about as much as of a need as they could get. "Goku is beyond your reach. Even if I told you where he was, you couldn't get to him."

"What the hell does that mean exactly? There is nowhere that we can't get to him. Tell me now or I will kill you. Or maybe I will kill Gohan, after I see how much I can get him to scream. Saiyan children are pretty tough so it could take a while to kill him. And when he is crying out in pain begging for it to stop then I will tell him that you, his friend could have avoided this but you didn't want to answer a simple question. So he will go to his grave hating you."

Piccolo felt Gohan's energy beginning to spike as the boy started moving again and knew he had to stall for just a bit more time. "Fine I will tell you. The reason you can't reach Goku is because he is the Otherworld." Piccolo shifted back into his fighting stance as he spoke. He knew that he was going stall just a bit longer to give Gohan a few moments to get adjusted to the current situation.

"He's in the Otherworld what the fuck does that mean? Fine you want to play coy I will beat it out of you." Android 18 charged forward and started to punch and kick Piccolo making every blow painful, but none of them disabling or crippling. Piccolo was able to block a couple but for the most part he was helpless to defend himself from 18's onslaught. The force of the blows were timed perfectly to not even allow him to fall.

Gohan awoke getting to his feet and looking around to see Piccolo getting the shit kicked out of him. His mentor appeared totally helpless against the might of Android 18. Gohan powered up feeling his anger rise. As his power rose, Android 18 paid no attention to him. Which meant either she didn't consider him a threat or that she couldn't sense energy and thus couldn't read his power level. Gohan raised his hands above his head "Leave him alone! MASENKO" A giant blast of yellow energy shot from his hands and hit the turning Android who finally allowed Piccolo to fall to the ground bleeding. She took the energy blast almost head on, not getting her hands up in time and it drove her back into a nearby building, which feel in on itself from the force of her impacting into it, burying her underneath the building debris.

Gohan quickly headed over to Piccolo helping him to his feet, "Are you ok Mr. Piccolo?"

"I will be fine Gohan, I just need a few moments to heal myself. But I need you to stay angry, it's our only chance. Remember how your father said that turning super saiyan happens in response to a need not a want? Well we have that need..." Piccolo's speech to Gohan was cut off as an energy blast cut his left arm off and he fell to the ground.

As he saw his mentor fall to ground without his left arm Gohan's anger and power rose again. "My daddy would have killed you. But he's not here so I will do it for him!" Gohan rushed Android 18 punching her repeatedly in the chest and then upper cutting her into the air. He laid down a barrage of punches right into her ribs, followed by a kick that smashed her into the ground. Gohan then flew up into the air and charged a massive energy attack. "SUPER MASENKO" This was the same attack combo that Gohan had used against Frieza on Namek, but much more powerful now with his vastly improved power. Still it wasn't enough as she held her hands out and deflected it, not even struggling with the attack the least bit. She had been fighting all morning and all the combined efforts against her had to show for it was some torn clothes and a couple of nicks and scratches on her.

"What is it with people and ruining my clothes? Is there some law of fashion that I am breaking that I am not aware of?" She looked over at Gohan who was breathing hard. "Little saiyan, where did you get so much power? This far exceeds your projected power. It's not nearly enough to beat me, but at least you can give me some amusement before I kill you. Ever wondered how loud you can scream? Lets find.." She got kicked in her back in the middle of her speech by Piccolo who proceeded to rain blows on her head until she got tired of it and caught his hand.

"I guess I have to rip your other arm off as well then." Android 18 kicked him in the chest stunning him and when Gohan came to save Piccolo she blasted him away. She grabbed Piccolo by his ripped shirt and held him up. With a swift focused chop she chopped his remaining arm off, leaving him armless and open to attack. "INFINTY BULLET" Android 18 blasted him with a series of close range energy bullets scattering hits all over his body and leaving him bleeding from further cuts. Finally she kicked him away into one of the few still standing buildings in the area figuring that he would bleed out on his own.

Gohan got up in time to see her inflict the last of the brutal attacks on Piccolo and his anger rose again, only this time it kept rising. Pieces of the street and smashed buildings were crushed as they rose in respond to his rising power. West City had an mini earthquake as the ground shook, bringing already weakened buildings around him crashing to the ground. His eyes turned teal and his hair flashed gold then black before returning to gold and staying there. His aura shifted from white to golden. His only clear thoughts being of revenge, Gohan strode forward, Android 18 shot an energy blast at him, the same one she had used to blast him away just moments ago, and he caught the energy wave with one hand crushing it down to nothing simply by closing his fist, as he kept walking forward slowly.

Wait how did his hair go from black to blond? Where did he get all of this new power? My data shows nothing about Gohan having this sort of power. I might have to start being more serious now. Android 18 mused to herself as Gohan walked forward. Up to this point she had been completely playing around using a small fraction of her power, 15% at most. Now it was time to get more serious. "Alright then little saiyan, let me see what you can do."

* * *

Behind Gohan's back Krillin had reappeared after making a side trip to get some Senzu Beans. He gave one to Piccolo, healing his arms and all his wounds and giving him back his lost energy. Krillin then kept the rest in a bag at his belt. Piccolo grunted as he stood back up, testing out his new limbs. "Listen Krillin this is very important. We have to get Gohan out of here and up to the Lookout and hopefully I can make it there with him. I have something that might make a difference in our fight against the Androids. I need you to distract her and then try and escape on your own. Piccolo knew that he was asking Krillin to more then likely throw his life away for the greater good but it was important, so important that it was likely the only chance that they had.

Krillin nodded at Piccolo's words, he knew what what had to be done. Right now they had no chance vs the Androids even with Gohan turning into a super saiyan. These Androids were even more powerful then the super saiyans. If Piccolo had a way to change the situation then that chance had to be taken. "Here take these" he said handing over the Senzu to Piccolo. "Good luck. Tell Gohan it had to be this way." He powered up to his max and flew at Android 18. She was so good looking that it was a pity he was going to have to mess that face up. But as far as people killing him went, he couldn't think of someone much better looking to die to.

In the time it took for Krillin to find Piccolo, heal him and for them to make a plan, Android 18 had already engaged Gohan as a SSJ and driven him back. For all of his new found power he still couldn't hurt her and was getting beaten brutally as she took her frustration out on him and for the first time since appearing in West City fought somewhat seriously. Around the time that Krillin distracted her by blasting her from behind, Gohan had fallen forward his hair turning back to black as he got knocked out.

She turned to face Krillin. "Not another pest. How many of you are there? Oh, it's you again. You are here to die. Well I am not going to delay that wish. No more games. POWER BLITZ" She shot a blue-pink energy sphere at Krillin who was unable to dodge and was thrown backwards by the attack. She walked forward firing off energy sphere after energy sphere until Krillin was pounded back into a courtyard wall. She walked up to him, as he was clinging to life and shook her head. "It's sad because you are kind of cute." She gave him a kiss on top of his bald head before reaching out and snapping his neck.

"Now that he is out of the way time to deal with the other one." She looked around to see that Gohan was gone. So he ran away than, well I will kill him next time I see him. Though he was kind of fun to play with. Maybe I should leave him alive so we can play again. Time to see what 17 is up to. She flew off searching the city for her brother.

* * *

Piccolo was most of the way to the Lookout with Gohan in his arms, when the boy woke up.

"Mr. Piccolo why did we leave? We left Krillin behind, I don't understand."

"We had to Gohan. We are the only chance the world has so we have to regroup. I have a way to get vastly more powerful and you need to hone your skills as a super saiyan. Krillin gave his life so that we could get away. We can add him to the long list of people the Androids have killed today." Piccolo landed on the Lookout and was met by Kami and Mr. Popo. Piccolo gently put Gohan down on his feet.

"Mr. Popo take Gohan and get him fed, rested and healed up, it is time for Piccolo and myself to become one again."

Gohan sunk to his knees and smashed his fist against the floor of the Lookout, struggling to hold back tears. "No not Krillin as well. Why am I always powerless to stop the people around me from getting hurt or killed?"

"It is ok to cry Gohan" Piccolo told him. "Let out all of your grief, but remember who caused this and use that anger to become stronger."

"No Kami please I don't want to lose you." Mr. Popo said helping Gohan back up to his feet.

"All things happen in their time. And you won't be losing me, I will still be around, I will just be complete once again. Now go." Kami walked over to the edge of the lookout. "The Androids are still causing terror, now they have moved on out of West City and are creating chaos in another area. We must do this, its our only chance to stop them."

"Kami what about the dragon balls? If you go forward with this they will be useless", Mr. Popo objected.

"If Piccolo dies because he doesn't have the needed power to fight the Androids then I will die along with him anyway. This is my duty because we need to fuse for the Earth to have any chance of defeating the Androids. Mr. Popo it has been an honor serving along side you, I want you to take just as good of Piccolo as you took care of me." Kami was getting tired of repeating himself, but for Mr. Popo who had been a faithful and loyal servant he was willing to fully explain himself.

"Yes Kami." Mr. Popo took Gohan inside of the Lookout, taking him to a chamber where he could rest. He took a Senzu bean with him so that Gohan could have his wounds healed.

"We are going to use my body old man."

"I know Piccolo. You will gain my wisdom and ability to look over the earth. And the power we will have together will be immense. We don't know how powerful the Androids are because we can't sense their energy, but this should get us much closer to them. We will be more powerful than any super saiyan currently is. Had we been fused when Frieza and King Cold landed we would have defeated them easily. "

"Good. Well time is wasting let's do this. As distasteful as I find this it is our only chance." Piccolo walked over to stand right next to Kami.

"You have changed a great deal since you were born. It is because of this that I am willing to become one with you again. You have very little evil left inside of you Piccolo, you have made me proud. Now all we have to do is touch hands and focus and we will fuse."

Piccolo and Kami touched hands and Kami screamed out powering up to his max. Slowly he faded away as the aura around Piccolo grew to an even more intense shade of blue than usual. Finally it was finished and Piccolo stood for a moment, feeling the rush of power within. He had thought that the power boost from fusing with Nail had been massive but that was nothing compared to this. Now that he was one being again he had his complete power. With this power, Gohan and the training that he planned to put both of them through the Androids shouldn't stand a chance.

Gohan wandered out, feeling much better now that he was fully healed. He took a hard look at his mentor noticing the change. "Mr. Piccolo...no you're not him anymore."

Piccolo held his hands wide open, showing a relaxed stance. "Relax Gohan, I am still here. I fused with Kami. Remember how my energy felt different after I fused with Nail? This is the same thing only more so. It is good that you are up and your power is restored. I need to test my new power. Go ahead and attempt to strike me.

Gohan shifted into the demon form battle stance. "Alright Mr. Piccolo here I come." He flew at Piccolo drawing back for a strike with his fist before changing direction at the end and coming in for a side kick, just like Piccolo had taught him. Never telegraph your moves and always do what your foe least expects.

Piccolo calmly blocked Gohan's leg with his leg then blasted him back with an energy blast. Everything seemed to be moving in slow motion now, including Gohan. His movements were so easy to read. "Try again" he instructed as Gohan got back up, his new clothes smoking from the blast. "Only this time transform."

The 10 year old saiyan nodded and tried to transform, but found that he couldn't. He had just been through too much today, even with the Senzu beans helping him out. "Mr. Piccolo I am trying to transform but I can't. Its not working. I don't know how to do it again."

Piccolo remembered a conversation he had a couple of years ago after Goku had killed Frieza and King Cold. At first Goku had told him, it took getting angry to transform, or at least remembering the moment that had caused the transformation in the first place, but with practice he had been able to master it to the point that he could transform at will. "Gohan you have to remember the moment that caused you to transform. That is what your dad told me all those years ago. Remember the anger and pain you felt just a bit ago when you saw your friends lying there dead."

Gohan tried but couldn't get it to work. The mere act of trying to draw out that much energy caused him to sink to his knees. He burst into tears letting everything flow out of him as his power dropped to almost nothing. "I am sorry Mr. Piccolo, I can't it's just too hard right now."

Piccolo walked over and wrapped him in a hug before carrying him back in to lay down. I pushed you to hard today Gohan. You need to rest. Tomorrow we will train in the Hyperbolic Time Chamber." Piccolo placed Gohan down on the bed. "Now rest Gohan. We wake up early tomorrow to train."

"Mr. Piccolo what is the Hyperbolic Time Chamber?"

"It is a room of time and space where we can get an entire year's worth of training in a single day. Now sleep."

The next day Piccolo woke Gohan up early in the morning and then went into the HTC. A day later they emerged looking much more battered and much stronger. Gohan had grown a bit and his body was ripped with muscles. He could now transform at will among other things that he had picked up by training with Piccolo for an entire year.

* * *

Meanwhile inside the doctor's hidden lab, his computer was hard at work and a timer was slowly counting down to zero.

_A/N: What will be the result of Vegeta's fight with Android 17? What difference if any will the training in the HTC make for Piccolo and Gohan? Find out in the next chapter. _

_Reviews_

Q: Well I saw this in the list of stories on the first page and decided to read over it. Now let me start by saying that I always tell people what I think, and I only tell them that because I respect them enough that I think they can handle it. So let us start with what's good.

**A: Thanks for reviewing and thanks for being honest about my story. It only helps me improve as a writer when people do that.**

Q: The core concept of the story seems sound. I like the way you are starting slow and showing off everything as it happens. It's not just Frieza being on Earth and something random happening. Goku vs. Frieza and King Cold will be great to see as well. With only one grammatical issue I see coming up repeatedly, you've also written this largely in such a way that I can read it over quickly and easily. Good job :) But with all that said...

**A: I thought about starting this with the Androids attacking first, and that is how I had it outlined, but when I started to write I saw that I needed to back up. Doing it this way has allowed to set important story details up in scene that I otherwise would have had to bring into the story through narration or dialogue. I hope that you enjoy the Goku vs. Frieza/King Cold fight. It was a really fun fight to write.**

Q: There are two issues I found while reading over the story. The first one that really caught me was dialogue and how it was handled. In terms of dialogue punctuation, I used to make similar mistakes, you can actually see it all through the early chapters of The Catalyst as I haven't gone back and edited those chapters yet, lol. In a lot of cases you are ending dialogue snippets with a period, rather than a comma. Common mistake, as I said, and I even used to do it myself.

However, a lot of the dialogue itself seems...out of place. In some cases just a few strange word choices, or not channeling what the character feels like they should say. This breaks a bit of the immersion of the story. This is a really tough one to do, because dialogue is really hard for lots of authors. All the same, I'll try to get to chapter 2 once I'm done work today.

**A: Thank you for pointing out the issue with dialogue punctuation, I didn't know that. I am trying to do my best with the dialogue, and making sure that everyone says the types of things that it feels like they should say. Hopefully chapters 2 and 3 read better for you. **

Q: Cool so this story is based in the future before Trunks even goes back in time to kill Frieza and King Cold?

**A: Yes its based on future events that we never got to see in the canon timeline. Don't assume that events will play out the same way that they did in the canon timeline, because they won't. I can't say anything more without spoiling things but expect some more twists and turns along the way. **


	4. Chapter 4-Hope Lost

**Future Saga**

**Chapter 4- Hope Lost**

May 12th, Age 767 Future Timeline

_10 minutes before Piccolo reaches the Lookout with Gohan._

As the smoke cleared Vegeta spotted Android 17 flying out of the smoke at him. Vegeta was just able to dodge getting kicked in the face, but instead he got grabbed by Android 17 and thrown at another building. Vegeta caught himself before he crashed into the building stopping in midair. He took a close look at Android 17 and was dismayed to see that the Android didn't have more then a couple of marks on him from the energy blast. Vegeta knew that he was going to have to do better if he was going to have any chance of winning this battle. Vegeta threw a small energy blast at Android 17, distracting him, and used that to get behind the Android, kneeing him in the small of his back, punching him in the face as he spun around, kneeing him in the chest and then flying up above him before smashing him down into the pavement with a Double Ax Handle. Vegeta followed this up with a volley of energy blasts each one knocking Android 17 further into the pavement. Finally he stopped after launching one giant energy blast as he was unable to see Android 17 through all of the smoke. He hung in midair panting as he waited to see what kind of damage that did.

Vegeta saw the shape of Android 17 standing there clapping his hands slowly.

"Bravo Vegeta, keep it up, you are making killing you that much more fun. Lets keep playing now. When I learned that Goku was dead, I didn't think there was anyone left that could give me this kind of a fight. But you are making my life much more fun." 17 smirked at Vegeta. "Of course I haven't had to use even half of my power yet so don't think you have any chance of winning this game."

_Is that true? Could it be that this Android wasn't even using half his power? No I refuse to believe that a machine can be that much stronger then I am. We have been fighting pretty evenly so far._ Vegeta clinched his fists as 17 taunted him. _Damn Android treating like this a game, hes going to pay for disrespecting me like that._ "Fifty percent of your power is all you have left after the beating you have taken. Now taste my true power Android." Vegeta powered up some more, allowing his anger to fuel his power.

Flying forward, he engaged in an exchange of blows with Android 17. After getting knocked backwards by a kick from 17 Vegeta rushed forward with a series of kicks and punches that were all easily blocked by 17. Changing tactics Vegeta faked a kick then punched 17 in the face, following that up with a double kick to the chest that spun Android 17 around before kneeing him the back and blasting him away with a Super Explosive Wave.

Android 17 who wasn't really hurt by those attacks recovered quickly and vanished appearing right by Vegeta and elbowing him in the face. As Vegeta staggered back from the blow to the face, 17 buried his fist into Vegeta's gut causing him to double over and cough up some blood. 17 proceeded to land a series of blows that sent Vegeta back through some trees. The Saiyan warriors hair faded to black as he laid among the remains of the trees stunned. Android 17 walked forward grabbing Vegeta and holding him up with one hand. He punched him over and over again in the gut with the other hand, causing Vegeta to cry out with each bunch and cough up tons of blood. "You see Vegeta this is what happens when I decide to end the game and get serious."

Vegeta knew he had only one chance and he took it. Kicking out with his legs he was able to keep Android 17 busy while he used a Solar Flare. White light filled the area and when Android 17 got his sight back, Vegeta was gone.

Transforming back into a super saiyan Vegeta floated in the air. _Shit these things are durable. I am going to have to use my new attack. But if I do that then it will take out most of the city, including the Capsule Corporation where Bulma and my son live. I don't have any choice though and they can be wished back with the dragonballs._ He flew up higher into the air so he could try and get some more distance between him and Android 17 to charge to attack. Vegeta flung his hands out wide palms extended and started to charge energy in both hands.

Android 17 finally spotted Vegeta charging up yet another attack. "You aren't done yet Vegeta? Surely you have figured out by now that nothing you can do can hurt me. Just admit defeat, run away. I will let you run so that I can play with you later. I just want to hear you say that I am better then you." Android 17 knew from his files on Vegeta that the saiyan prince would rather die than admit anything of the sort.

"Go to hell Android, I am the Prince of all saiyans and I will never admit defeat to a scrapyard pile of parts like yourself."

A wide smile formed on the Android's face, he was glad that Vegeta was sticking around to be killed."Very well then. Try and hit me with your attack. But know that this is the last time you have control. After this we play the game my way." They had in fact been playing the game Android 17's way since Vegeta showed up. Noticing the size of the energy balls charging in Vegeta's hand, plus the long time the charging was taking Android 17 spoke again. "Better make this last one a good one, or it will be strike three and your out."

* * *

Meanwhile back at Capsule Corporation Bulma was getting in her private jet with Trunks and pleading with her parents. "We have to get out of here before the Androids reach us."

"I am sure things will be fine. After all your friends will take care of the Androids" her mom said. "I have cookies on the stove and I want to finish making them."

"Mom if they could have then they would have already. I have been keeping track of the battle through my scouter and some of them have tried and failed already. Even Vegeta isn't a match for them. We need to go now."

"We can't leave the animals behind to fend for themselves, we are going to stay put, I am sure that things will be just fine. We will grab the animals and head to the underground shelter." Her father pulled a capsule out of his lab coat pocket and handed it to Bulma. "Here have this, its all of my most recent research and notes on time travel. I think that with enough time and a powerful enough energy source it can be finished. I started to look into it after Goku died because I saw how much his death hurt you. Take this and look it over. You can tell me what you think later on."

Bulma accepted the capsule, knowing that she couldn't change her parents minds now and also knowing that she had to get Trunks to safety.

"Be safe mom and dad. See you soon." Bulma hit the controls on the jet and took off, heading to a safe area. She knew that she would need to modify the engines some in order to be able to reach the Lookout.

* * *

"Ready for the end of your life Android? I promise its going to be quick at least." Vegeta said as he finished charging his attack.

"That seems like a fair deal to make. I will kill you quickly as well Vegeta."

"Enough talking. FINAL FLASH!" Vegeta brought his arms together combing the beams before firing his attack right at Android 17.

Android 17 decided at the last minute to dodge the attack rather then take it head on. He waited till the last possible second then dodged out of the way, flying up and circling behind Vegeta.

Vegeta was sure that his attack had both hit and finished off Android 17 and was waiting to see the Android's broken body on the ground. He dropped out of his super saiyan form, believing the fight to be over. He had put pretty much everything he had into that attack.

* * *

The Final Flash hit the ground with a flash of bright light that blanketed most of West City. The flash was over 1000 times as bright as a lighting flash and everyone outside within city limits looking up at the sky was blinded by it. They were the lucky ones that didn't see their deaths rushing toward them like a runaway freight train. Everything within a 20 mile radius was set afire in the seconds after the flash in the sky was seen, and every building and car in the entire city had its paint burned off of it. After the flash a fireball like effect rose in the air. Anyone outside of city limits who happened to be looking in the direction of West City within 10 miles were blinded by the flash, either for seconds or hours.

Within 10 miles of ground zero everyone normal was turned into ash by the intense heat. A few people with Ki control managed shield themselves from the explosions and just suffered the burns. Everyone within the 20 mile fire radius suffered third degree burns. The bodies of the fallen Z-Fighters got turned to ash.

The blast wave that followed the Final Flash impacting the ground blanketed the entire city in seconds, causing every unsoundly built or damaged building to fold in among itself. The windows got broken in every still standing building in the city. Spread by the shock wave the fire spread out to other parts of the city and parts outside the city. Fuel tanks went up in flames further adding to the chaos and creating a firestorm that swept the entire city and beyond.

Those firefighting units that remained alive in West City found themselves trapped and unable to respond to put any of the fires out. Communication was all down as a result of the blast cutting the cables, and so no outside help could be summoned. Not that it needed to be as people in other cites had already noticed that West City just turned into a giant fireball and were already sending help. However as they attempted to send help they found that they couldn't do to roads being blocked off from all the debris, plus all of the smoke in the air that was making it hard to see.

When the smoke started to clear a massive crater 10 miles wide and 15 miles deep, big enough to be seen from space.

By the time the fire burned itself out, only a single building was still standing in West City, that building being Capsule Corporation, heavily damaged but still standing.

* * *

Vegeta scanned the ground looking for any sign of the Android before he was tapped on the shoulder from behind by the very Android he was looking for. He spun around trying to raise his guard before Android 17 could strike.

"Excuse me. I believe its now my turn correct?" Android 17 asked Vegeta before punching him in the face shattering his jaw and sending teeth flying out of Vegeta's mouth. This time Android 17 wasn't holding back as much of his power as he had before. "I promised you a quick death, and I am an Android of my word. He punched Vegeta again, this time ramming his fist through Vegeta's chest and out the other side. He removed his fist and Vegeta fell to the Earth bleeding out of his chest. "I would leave you there to bleed out Vegeta, but that would be a slow and painful death and knowing how you saiyans are you might even find a way to live through it. Time to end this. PHOTON FLASH BARRAGE" He shot one energy wave then another and then another, bombarding Vegeta with energy wave after energy wave until the saiyans body was reduced to small pieces. He couldn't see anything of Vegeta left so unless he managed to go hide somehow with a giant hole in his chest then he was dead. And if he wasn't dead by some miracle then he would just be killed the next time he showed up. Android 17 smiled as he flew off. Now to look for his sister.

* * *

As it happened they spotted each other in mid air and flew over. "Enjoying yourself sis?"

"Yes, but I think this city is pretty well wrecked, and all of our playthings are either dead or have run off, so I think we should go. I don't see any more fun here. I do wish I knew where Gohan and Piccolo ran off to though. It was really strange Gohan's hair was black and then all of the sudden he yelled a lot and his hair became gold. He was a lot more powerful after that. Not enough to hurt me of course but I could tell he was fighting harder."

"Same thing with Vegeta and his hair, though that last attack could have damaged me if I had allowed it to hit me. There is nothing in my files about saiyans being able to change their hair colors like that. Anyway I want some food sis."

"We don't have to eat 17. We are Androids remember?"

"True we don't have to eat 18, but that doesn't mean that we can't enjoy doing so. Besides it could be fun to do things that normal people would do."

* * *

Piccolo stopped flying in mid air and turned around when he felt and then saw the energy blast impact West City. That was Vegeta's blast from the energy it gave off. "Vegeta no what are you doing. What does blowing up a city gain you?" Shortly after that he felt Vegeta's energy spike once and then fade away. He was gone. That meant that the fate of the entire world rested on him and Gohan. All the more reason to fuse with Kami. Sure it gave up the use of the dragonballs but without the fusion they were screwed anyway. West City would just have to be rebuilt the normal way after the Androids were dealt with.

* * *

Meanwhile on the Lookout Kami watched the Vegeta vs Android 17 fight in horror. All those lives lost. He looked at a different location as he sensed Piccolo and Gohan headed his way. It was time then. Vegeta was a SSJ and couldn't beat one Android. The only thing stronger then a super saiyan is a super Namek and that is what they had to become to have any shot. Besides Piccolo would gain his knowledge of where New Namek was located and they could always use the dragonballs and find a new Guardian of the Earth there after the Androids have been dealt with.

* * *

May 14th, Age 767 Future Timeline

Upon stepping out of the HTC Piccolo walked over to the edge of the Lookout and looked down. It appeared as if no new cites had been attacked in their one day inside the chamber. This was good news. Now they just needed to be ready to strike the next time the Androids showed themselves. "Gohan take a bit of time to eat and then come back out here. We have training to do still." Piccolo heard the roar of a jet and looked up. That was impossible, no one could get up here without a personal invite from the Guardian of the Earth, who was now him, and he hadn't invited anyone. Yet here was a jet plane about to land here anyway. Piccolo reached out with his senses confirming that the people in the plane were in fact alive and not the Androids.

As the jet landed and powered down Gohan came running back out. "Mr. Piccolo that is Bulma, and someone else, not sure who it is, but they are powerful, more powerful then the average person."

Bulma stepped out holding Trunks in here arms. "Hi Gohan, glad to see that you are still alive. "Hi Piccolo, you look different. Where is Kami? I need to talk to him about staying here for a while. Also we need to collect the dragonballs so we can wish for West City to be restored. I heard on the radio that he it blow up. I assume by the Androids."

"I fused with Kami Bulma so the dragonballs are useless. We will have to go to New Namek after this is all over and use theirs. " Piccolo explained. "I see you have a baby with you? Judging by his Ki he is yours. Who is his father?"

"Oh. Well about that this is baby Trunks and Vegeta is the father. But the bastard took off for space before I could tell him. I haven't see him back since. Do you know anything about where he is." She noticed the downcast looks on Gohan and Piccolo's faces. "What don't tell me hes dead?"

Piccolo nodded. "He is, I am sorry sorry. He died fighting one of the Androids." He left off the part of Vegeta being the one that blew up West City, not wanting to cause Bulma any more pain. "Of course you are welcome to stay here as long as you want. I will have Mr. Popo get a room ready for you."

Bulma had tears streaming down her face as she heard the news about Vegeta. "Damn that man. He left his only son without a father. And why because his foolish pride made him go fight the Androids by himself. Had he just waited, he could have fought them along side the two of you, and he might have lived."

"Miss Bulma where are your parents?" Gohan asked noticing that they weren't with her.

"Well they wanted to stay behind and take care of the animals. Bulma said sadly. "They said that they were perfectly safe since Capsule Corporation is rated to stand up to a nuke hit. I would have been here yesterday but it took me a bit of time to figure out how to modify the engines so that they would fly this high. I got most of the important research items we were working on here with me. Dad insisted that I take all of his notes and his work with me." She brightened up for a moment. "Did you know that my dad believes its possible to travel in time? He was doing the very beginning of the work to check if hes right. Nothing useable right away, but if hes right...it could solve a lot of problems. We might even be able to go back and save Goku now that we know how to fix what killed him. Goku would make all of the difference I am sure of it."

Gohan's eyes lit up at the prospect of seeing his dad again. "That would be great. I would love to see daddy again and my daddy could beat the Androids, I know he could, he could beat anyone."

"I will work on it Gohan. It might become our ace in the hole just in case."

"I got to go home to check in or mom will kill me." _Gohan knew that his mom didn't want him fighting, she wanted him to study, and he wanted to study himself but this was more important. He had to train in order to be able to defeat the Androids._

_Piccolo thought he had a pretty good idea about what was going through Gohan's head. Of course Chi-Chi wasn't going to want him to train or even fight. But he had to. She was so worried about him studying that she put it ahead of more important things like saving the world. Still he had become a closer friend of the family so maybe if he..._

"Wait let me go with you Gohan. I have an idea that might solve your problems. I know you need to train to beat the Androids, and I know how your mom is about you studying. Well who better to study with then me? I am the smartest person on the planet you know. Your mom allowed it once before while we were traveling to Namek remember. I think that I can convince her that is another situation that requires you to train."

Gohan's face lit up into a smile as Bulma explained her idea. That could very well work. "Cool Mrs. Bulma. That would be great if you would help me like that. My mom...she means well but she doesn't understand why I have to fight sometimes." _Gohan knew he had to fight not only to save the world but to avenge the deaths of his friends. The Androids were going to pay for what they had done, he was going to do them what his father did to Frieza and King Cold._

* * *

A shock wave filled the Lookout as Gohan's fist met the back of Piccolo's arm, Gohan spun with the block, kneeing Piccolo in the chest. He powered up, allowing his aura to blow Piccolo back a few steps before rushing forward and elbowing him in the face. A follow up series of blows sent Piccolo flying back across the training area of the lookout. Gohan vanished appearing behind Piccolo and kicking him down into the Lookout floor. Floating up into the air he raised his hands over his head. "MASENKO". Before Piccolo could get back to his feet he was pounded further into the Lookout floor by the giant energy wave that Gohan launched at him.

At a signal from Piccolo, Gohan powered down, his hair going from gold to black as their training session ended.

"Good job, you are learning quickly, always strike where it's least expected and when you have the edge in a battle never let up. If we get them down we might only get one chance to finish them, so if you see a chance to finish an Android take it, no matter what is happening with the other fight."

Gohan nodded at Piccolo's wisdom.

"Also I was thinking we could use the Pendulum room to help with our training. Its a safe way to try out new things and see how we measure up and what our chances are", Piccolo explained to Gohan. "How it works is that it sends our minds to any point that we wish, allowing us to fight battles and test out tactics without taking the physical risk. Mr. Popo can set it up for us."

"That sounds really cool Mr. Piccolo." Gohan said.

* * *

_Months later_

Gohan and Piccolo flew towards Ginger Town to confront the Androids once again. They had fought the Androids a half dozen times since that very first day, each time getting the crap kicked out of them, and sometimes just being able to escape with their lives.

Android 17 was driving a hover car through the streets of Ginger Town while his sister floated in the air and watched from the side. "Hey sis. I get 10 points for every person I hit."

Android 18 rolled her eyes at her brother's childish attitude. "Can you just kill them already so we can leave?"

A massive energy wave hit Android 17's car causing it to spin out of control and crash into a building. Android 18 looked up to see Piccolo and Gohan floating there. "Ah our playmates are back. That wasn't very nice of you to attack without letting us know you were there. If you don't want to play nice then neither we will."

Android 17 climbed of the hole in the building. "You are going to pay for that. I liked that car. I was going to keep it. Its the one I wanted since I was able to drive."

"Gohan you know what to do. Just like we practiced" Piccolo instructed as he charged an attack.

"Right!" With a yell Gohan transformed, and he also charged an attack. Then they both vanished, before appearing flanking Android 18.

"SUPER MASENKO!" they both yelled together. After their last defeat to the Androids they started to practice quickly gathering energy to charge attacks. Now it was time to see if it payed off. The blasts flew towards Android 18 on both sides impacting her with a loud explosion.

When the smoke cleared that saw that she had a green barrier around her. "That was really close, I almost didn't see you and get my barrier up in time. Hey 17 what do you say that we take them out now. Clearly they have improved, improved a lot, I am not sure how but they have."

"Sure thing Sis. Lets start with the green one. Lets see how many limbs we have to rip off before he can't regrow them anymore."

Gohan was shocked as he panted in mid air, he had thrown everything he had into that attack. "But that is impossible, that hit her head on. That should have taken her out."

"These Androids have more tricks then we expected Gohan. Throw me a Senzu bean and take one yourself so we can recharge."

Gohan nodded taking two beans out and throwing one over to Piccolo. Or he tried at least as Android 17 appeared in front of Piccolo and intercepted the bean, crushing it in his hand. "No more dirty tricks. Today you both suffer."

Android 18 appeared on the left side of Piccolo kicking him into the ground."

Moving quickly, Android 17 punched Gohan in the gut much as he had Vegeta staggering him and causing his hair to turn back to black as he vomited up a great amount of blood. The punch was followed up with an elbow to his windpipe crushing it, and making it hard for him to breathe. He grabbed Gohan's shirt with one hand holding him up while he punched him in the face repeatedly.

Piccolo tried to go to the defense of his young charge but every time he moved he found himself blocked by Android 18. She shot a series of finger beams at his right leg shredding it and causing him to scream out in pain. "Does that hurt? Here let me make it better for you." She reached down and ripped his leg off. Placing her hand against his chest she fired a Full Power Energy wave which further ravaged his body as he got sent spinning away. Knowing from the first battle that it would take some time for Piccolo to heal she turned her attention back to Gohan who was being pounded on by her brother.

"Don't be too rough on him 17, you might kill him, and if you do that you will spoiling months of fun."

"Alright 18, we will do things your way." He landed a final punch before throwing Gohan down on to the ground where Gohan struggled to stay awake. They both landed and walked over to where Piccolo was gathering the energy to regrow his leg. "Hey look sis he is trying to stand up on one leg." Android 17 kicked out knocking Piccolo back to the ground. Every time Piccolo attempted to stand back up he got knocked back to the ground by one of the Androids.

Soon they got bored with that and moved on to torturing him other ways. Android 17 held Piccolo still while Android 18 ripped off first his left arm and then was going to rip off his right when she got kicked away from behind by a rejuvenated Gohan, who had taken a Senzu bean to heal himself. Moving with super saiyan speed Gohan, quickly shoved one into Piccolo's mouth forcing him to eat it before Android 17 could stop. The effects showed right away. Piccolo powered up shaking off Android 17's grip and using the extra energy to regrow both his arm and his leg.

"Now you are mine Android. Its just me and you." Piccolo did his best to focus all of the Android's attention on him sending him spinning away with an energy blast to his chest. While he had a moment he turned and spoke to Gohan. "Listen to me Gohan. I was wrong. We aren't strong enough to defeat the Androids, they are just toying with us right now. I need you to run while I hold them off. Its all up to you now. You need to train and get strong enough to defeat them."

Gohan shook his head. "No I am going to stay and fight with you."

"They aren't going to let us escape this time, I will distract them while you get away."

"I can't leave you behind, you would never leave me behind. I won't lose another friend!" Gohan clinched his fists together as he spoke. "We just got our power back, we can take them together."

Out of the corner of his eye as Gohan spoke Piccolo saw the Androids raising their hands to fire energy attacks at Gohan's back and appeared in front of Gohan to take the attacks for him. The combined power of the attacks knocked him to the ground. " Listen to me Gohan, I believe in you, I always have from the very beginning. You have the power inside of you that you need, you always have. Don't be scared to unleash it. Now go, if we both die here the world is doomed." Piccolo got to his feet before rising up in the air and charging up energy in both hands.

Tears falling down his face Gohan nodded and took off, heading to the Lookout while Piccolo kept the Android's attention by firing energy blasts at both of them. "Now its just us Androids and I don't have to worry about holding back anymore."

As Gohan flew to the Lookout, Piccolo opened a metal link with him, allowing him to watch the events going on at the battlefield.

" You're telling me you were holding back? Why would you do that? Android 17 asked puzzled.

Piccolo allowed his power to fully rise to the surface and explode outward. "Because if I went all out with Gohan here I might have hurt him. And I couldn't take that risk." Piccolo started to grow, turning into a giant.

"Well that is new" 17 commented.

"You know what they say 17, the bigger they are the harder they fall", 18 said with an evil grin on her face.

Both Androids rushed Piccolo, weaving in and out of his attempts to reach down and swat them away. What they didn't know was that they were playing right into Piccolo's hands. Powered up from his giant form he grabbed each of them out of the air and smashed them together. Piccolo then grabbed them and threw them up into the air. He shot a Demon Energy Wave from each hand at them, blowing them back into some buildings. Extending his arms he grabbed 17 as he got to his feet and slammed into the ground, Doing that left him open to 18 appearing in front of him and firing an energy wave into his face. Piccolo hit the ground hard.

"See 17 I was right, he does fall hard."

As she started to follow up he shot her with an explosive wave from his mouth. The energy wave slammed her into the ground.

Piccolo used the free moment to get back to his feet, shrinking back to normal size.

Android 18 got up a bit shaky, with purple bruises clear on her skin "That hurt, that truly hurt. You bastard, you caused me pain. 17, lets kill him, its a matter of pride now."

"What about ruining our fun if we do that 18?"

"We can always leave the other one alive, so we can play with him later." She paused and looked around, scanning the skies for Gohan. "Where is he anyway?"

"He is in a place you will never find him Androids." _The problem, Piccolo reflected, was that you had to fight both of them. It made it very hard, as you couldn't gang up on one of them and both of them already were more power than he was. It was time to take a major chance._ He rushed forward swinging at 17, only to have his punches easily blocked. Hitting 17 wasn't his goal though, he waited until 18 appeared next to her brother to deliver a strike before grabbing both of them. He hung on to both of them even as he got pummeled by Android 17.

_It really sucked to have to do this in the middle of a town, but they left him with very little choice. "Its time for all of this to end. I am going down and I am taking you with me_." He started to scream out drawing every iota of energy that he had out all at once. Piccolo intended to blow himself up and take the Androids with him.

Sadly for his plans he wasn't able to hold them long enough to complete his power up, and as soon as they broke free they delivered a double punch to his face causing him to fly backwards and lose his focus on powering up. This time they didn't let up, not even waiting for him to get back on his feet again before pummeling him with more punches and kicks, leaving scrapes, bruises and blood all over his body. The only stopped after further blows got no reaction from him. Then they rose up into the air above him and charged up energy attacks.

"The only place you're going is Hell Piccolo" Android 17 told him. "How dare you speak to us like you could possibly harm us. Its time for you to die now, no more games." He gave an evil grin before going on. "Everyone has their special energy attacks so I thought I would create one of my own. You will get to see it before you die. Well as you die anyway. Ready?" Android 17 started throwing energy beams in the shape of flaming spears down at Piccolo. "BURNING SPEAR ATTACK!"

Android 18 followed up with her own energy attack. "POWER BLITZ" This time she didn't make it a series of attacks but one big energy blast.

"Gohan will defeat you!" And so Piccolo passed from this world with those words on his lips.

Gohan could hardly make it back to the Lookout he was crying so hard. It wasn't just tears of loss though, it was tears of anger, anger at the world and anger at himself. He never seemed to be strong enough to save his friends. He kept failing them over and over again. First Yamcha, then Tien and Krillin, and now Piccolo.

Bulma wrapped him in her arms as he landed and walked him inside. "Mr. Popo told me." she explained to him. "Let me take care of you, you don't worry about a thing."

* * *

_A/N: That brings us to the end of Chapter 4. There will now be a time skip in my story as Gohan is alone fighting the Androids. I have had some people ask me when Trunks is going to show up, and the answer is next chapter. Remember to leave reviews, please. It takes 5 minutes to leave a couple of comments with thoughts on the chapter. _

_Oh and a happy/merry (insert whatever you celebrate here) to everyone, and I hope that everyone has a great New Year's, expect to see chapter 5 sometime after the New Year. After that updates will slow down as I am starting a new semester at college, and I now have two stories to update for the time being. _

_Reviews_

Q: This is interesting. So a change to the Mari timeline

**A: Thank you, I hope you are enjoying the story thus far. Yes, it is a series of changes to the Mari timeline that will have drastic effects on not only this timeline but the past timeline. **


	5. Chapter 5-Transformations

**Future Saga**

**Chapter 5-Transformations**

_Age 778 Future Timeline_

"Come on Gohan lets go swimming" 12 year old Trunks pleaded with his mentor and friend as they settled into their campsite in the forest.

The 22 year old sighed as he finished setting up the campsite. The capsules that Bulma provided made camping so much easier. He threw one out into a cleared area and a house appeared. It was almost like they weren't camping at all. It was rare that he took a day off of training anymore. When he wasn't training or recovering from fighting the Androids he was studying in an attempt to help Bulma with building the time machine. From time to time, he found free time to spend with Trunks and he had begun to train him under Bulma's nose. This camping trip wasn't going to be all fun, he was going to try and get some serious training in with Trunks. Bulma had allowed Trunks to be taught the basics but she bristled if Gohan tried to teach him anymore. She didn't want Trunks risking his life against the Androids. "One second Trunks." Gohan walked into the house and grabbed the wireless radio, turning it on to a news station and turning the volume so that it could be heard even while they swam. "Just in case the Androids decide to attack a city today, I need to know about it."

"Oh come on Gohan. Can't you forget about the Androids for one day?", Trunks asked him pouting a little bit. Even though much of the world was gone because of the Androids attacks, Trunks was still the only child of the richest family in the world, and thus usually used to mostly getting his way.

Gohan shook his head. "I can't every time I fail to stop them they kill more people", he clinched his fists with rage at the thought of them causing yet more death. "All because I am not strong enough to stop them."

_Gohan couldn't understand why he wasn't strong enough, he knew about the power boosts that saiyans, even half saiyans got when they recovered from near death. After Piccolo had died Gohan had hatched a slightly insane plan to use those power boosts to bring himself a to level where he could defeat the Androids. But after 10 plus years of suffering as many beatings from them as he could possibly take he still couldn't defeat the two of them together. He was pretty sure that at this point he could kill one of them in a one on one battle, the problem was they never gave him the chance. Gohan was so sure that if he just had some help, someone to fight one of the Androids while he took care of the other one that he could beat them. The only someone left was Trunks, but there was a small problem with that plan, Bulma refused to let her son fight or even to allow Gohan to train him beyond the basics. Currently Trunks just wasn't strong enough to be of use in a fight, and thus Gohan was reduced to training him while he took him on camping trips. But of course they had to camp, otherwise Bulma would suspect something and the gig would be up. _

He forced a smile on his face. "Sure Trunks lets go swimming", Gohan stripped off his outer clothes leaving him only in his underwear as he dived into the near by river. "Remember Trunks, stay in the calm area of the river, no going into the heavy currents." The last time he taken Trunks swimming the boy had almost drowned because he kept trying to go further and further into the strong currents.

Trunks also stripped down and jumped in. "Sure thing Gohan."

They went swimming for a while, splashing each other and playing in the water. It was so rare that Gohan got to truly relax like this. He kept a bit of his attention on the radio just in case, but mostly focused on having fun with Trunks. Of course after a while Trunks just had to bring up an old fight that they had been having.

"Gohan, I want to fight the Androids with you. I can help you" Trunks pleaded.

Gohan sighed as they had been through this many times before. "Trunks, buddy listen to me, while I am willing to train you, even behind your moms back, I can't take you to fight with me. For a couple of reasons. First is that you just aren't strong enough. You are stronger then I was when the Androids first appeared true, but until you can become a super saiyan you aren't any good to me in a fight. Second is that your mom would murder me if I let anything bad happen to you. You are all that she has left. Besides seeing what I became broke my mom's heart literally. The doctors claimed she died of old age, but I know that stress and worry over me greatly sped up her death. I don't want to inflict the same thing on Bulma, and allowing you to fight before you can transform would be doing that. If you could transform then you would maybe be some use to me."

Trunks clinched his fists together as Gohan spoke. _Why couldn't he transform, why? What was he doing wrong? Why was he failing? Gohan told him him was strong enough to transform but if that was the case then how come he kept failing to do so? _Trunks got out of the river, no longer wanting to swim. Now he wanted to train. "Come on Gohan, train me then. We can swim more later."

At first Gohan shook his head as he stayed put, the point of this trip was to relax and have some fun, something he had been struggling to do since Piccolo had died. Then he relented, climbing out of the river. If Trunks wanted to train, well Gohan didn't blame him. "Alright Trunks. Lets see what you can do", Gohan got into the demon stance and waved his hand beckoning Trunks forward.

Trunks nodded and flew at Gohan attacking wildly.

Gohan blocked each attack that Trunks threw with just a single arm. "Stop telegraphing your attacks Trunks, I don't even need to be able to sense your energy to know what you are going to do next. The Androids biggest weakness is that they can't sense our energy, so we can do things that shock them. " With that Gohan vanished, appearing behind Trunks with an energy ball charged in his left hand. He placed his left hand into Trunks back blasting him away and into the river.

Trunks came up gasping for air, struggling to get his bearings against the choppy flow of the river. He felt it pulling him further downstream. "Gohan help me."

But Gohan just smiled watching Trunks get pulled further down river. Trunks was rapidly approaching the edge of a waterfall.

"Gohan help me. I am going to go over!."

All Gohan did was float in the air and watch the scene resolve itself.

"Damn it Gohan!" With that last yell Trunks power exploded, flaring his aura bright white around him and creating a giant funnel in the water as he rose into the air. "You let me almost drown. Why Gohan?"

"You need to be able to handle yourself in any situation Trunks. I won't always be there to help you or to save you. You could have flared your power like that from the very beginning but you didn't. Why not? You had the power within you the entire time. You just need to learn to bring it to the surface." Gohan floated back to the ground. "Now lets go another round." It was a combination of anger and need that triggered his transformation, same with his dad. There had to be a way to get that same level of need with Trunks as he already had all the needed anger.

In response Trunks raised both his hands above his head as a ball of yellow energy appeared between them. He was going to show Gohan that he wasn't just a weak little kid. He wasn't. "Take this! FINISH BUSTER!" He fired his attack at Gohan.

At first Gohan thought that he could just catch the attack and throw it harmlessly away, but it had enough power behind it that his feet started to sink into the ground as he caught the attack with his outstretched hands. The earth started to quake around him as he drew out more power to deal with Trunks attack. Now they were getting somewhere finally.

Trunks was breathing hard after launching that attack but he still had enough energy to fire a series of energy blasts into the Finish Buster that Gohan was struggling to keep away from his body. These caused the attack to explode filling the air with a yellow light and a big boom. Trunks put his arms crossed in front of him to to shield himself from the energy that came from his exploded attack. At first it appeared that he had gotten Gohan finally but as the smoke cleared a yellow sparkling aura could be seen standing there.

Gohan burned with super saiyan energy as he threw a Full Power Energy Wave back at Trunks hitting the startled young teen in the face. Trunks hit the ground hard grabbing at his face as he did. "That was a cheap shot Gohan."

"Trunks in combat you can never let your guard down, you should have kept firing energy blasts to make sure that I was down for the count. Instead you sat there and waited to see what would happen. Those critical seconds that you wasted, those seconds the Androids could go anywhere or do anything and we can't sense their energy so we are in trouble if we lose sight of them."

Trunks got up bleeding freely from his nose and a series of cuts on his head. Head wounds almost always looked worse then they were because they bleed so much. Dropping out of his super saiyan form, Gohan walked over to check him out, confirming that Trunks wasn't seriously hurt. They only had a couple of Senzu beans left and couldn't afford to waste them on less then life or death or situations.

"Understand that I am hard on you in training because the Androids are harder on you in combat. If we had more Senzu beans I would be a lot rougher on you, so that you could get the power boost from recovering from near death like I have many times."

"Gohan you have fought the Androids many times right?"

"Yes well over 100 times, I stopped counting after that."

"How come your still alive then when my father and everyone else is dead?" Trunks sat down on one of the chairs that they had set up outside as he questioned Gohan.

Gohan shrugged in way of a partial answer. "I am not honestly not sure Trunks. They beat the crap out of me, but they never kill me. I think its because if they killed me they would miss out on all the fun that they have with finding different ways of tormenting me. It might also be because they think that I am the last person capable of giving them any sort of a decent fight, or they know that often times I wish I was dead rather then having to live with all the times that I have failed everyone, so they torment me by keeping me alive."

"Gohan don't say things like that. I don't want you dead," Trunks pleaded with his mentor.

"Relax Trunks, I don't intend to die, I have too much yet to do. Like finding a way to kill the Androids." Gohan paused, looking hard at Trunks. "Which is why I need to help you find a way to transform so that we can train for real. I am sure that I can beat one of the Androids, but the problem is I am almost never fighting just one of them. I need you to be able to at least keep the other Android busy while I deal with one of them and then we can double team the remaining one. Now come on lets train some more. I want to focus on how you power up. " Gohan walked over to stand right next to Trunks. "I am going to coach you to try and help you transform."

Trunks stood up and faced Gohan. "We have tried that before and its not worked. I just can't, as much as I want to, I don't seem to be able to do it Gohan."

"I know exactly how you feel Trunks, my dad tried to teach me for almost 3 years to transform and he wasn't able to do so. It wasn't until I needed to transform to save myself and Piccolo that I was able to do so. And that took seeing the dead bodies of my friends." Just letting his mind wander back to that horrible day made Gohan clinch his fists with rage. Letting his mind settle on any of the images cause Gohan to power up out of rage and thinking about the death of Piccolo caused him to transform again. He quickly powered down before speaking again to Trunks. "Now I want you to focus on the images you have seen of what the Androids have done. I want you to think about all of the dead bodies and all of the damage that they have caused. They have wiped out most of the people of earth, and most of everyone still living, live broken hobbled lives where they hardly get by each day. If it wasn't for the capsules your mom makes then everything would have broken down totally."

Trunks started nodded and started to focus on the images he had seen while touring ravaged cities in the aftermath with Gohan. The teddy bear laying in the broken grasp of the small child that they weren't in time to save. The doll that that another child had given him to take care of after she died. He still had that doll sitting in his room at Capsule Corporation. He screamed out in anger his aura flaring white but starting to spark gold. It wasn't fair that these monsters existed, that they kept bringing terror and fear to everyone.

"Keep focusing on those images Trunks you are doing it! Think of the what the Androids would do to me if they could, what they do to me every time I fight them." Gohan paused as he had a better idea. "Think of what they would do to your mom if they caught her. What they would put her through before they killed her." Gohan hated doing this ,but in his mind it was the only way to push Trunks over the edge. Trunks had to transform, no matter the cost to him mentally. There just wasn't time to coddle him along anymore.

It seemed to be working, Trunks was putting out more and more energy and his hair was shifting between gold and purple.

Gohan pushed harder with his words. "Without your mom the world has no hope. Are you going to let the world die because your too weak to transform Trunks? If that is the case tell me now and let me be done wasting my time with you. I will just take your mom away to work in safety, because you are too weak to protect her." Gohan's words were cruel and heartless, but not without a point. When he first started fighting the Androids Gohan couldn't have done what he was doing, said what he was saying, but the death of Piccolo had created a steely resolve in his mind. His mentors last words, Gohan was going to live up to them. He was going to kill the Androids whatever it took.

Gohan's threat to take his mom away kept playing over and over again in Trunks mind as he powered up. No one was going to take his mother away from him, not Gohan, and not the Androids. "I won't let anyone take my mom away." Finally his rage broke and the power inside of him rose to the surface. Trunks stood there transformed.

"Great job Trunks you did it! I knew you had it in you. Now lets put your power to the test. Come attack me."

Gohan's praise went in one ear and out the other as Trunks was lost in the rush of power, and rage that often came with the first transformation to super saiyan. All of this sweet power, it felt amazing. He heard the command to attack Gohan though. "ENERGY BURST." Trunks fired energy blast after energy blast at Gohan, blanketing him in smoke.

Gohan blocked or dodged all of the energy blasts thrown his way, flying in and knocking Trunks to the ground. "You are so sloppy with how you are using your energy Trunks" he scolded. "The anger is good, you can use the anger, but you can't allow it to burn out too quickly." Gohan transformed as he blocked all of the punches and kicks that Trunks threw his way. He was about to counterattack when he felt a massive energy source approaching them. "Trunks stand down we have company incoming."

With part of his rage played out, Trunks was able to focus and feel the energy for himself. He backed off the attack. Dropping his super saiyan transformation he took a capsule out of his jacket and threw it on the ground. Inside was his sword and he quickly strapped it on his back. "Who is that Gohan? Whoever that is they have a ton of ki. But it feels strange...I get bad vibes just sensing it."

Gohan also returned to his normal state. T_hat energy it feels like Frieza, but it can't be. I was there when my dad killed him._ "I don't know Trunks but its evil. We should be on our guard. We need to raise our power levels so that we draw them right too us.. Its bad enough that the Androids attack cities, we don't need whoever this foe is attacking them as well.

* * *

Following his scouter the powerful warrior easily found them.

Gohan did a double take upon seeing who the warrior was. "Frieza? No way my dad killed you." Gohan looked again. "No your not Frieza."

"Correct. I am Cooler, his older brother", Cooler flicked his tail as he walked forward looking around.

Judging by Cooler's power level, he was weaker then Frieza was when Goku finally killed him. Powerful yes, but not a real threat, not at Gohan's current level. Even Trunks could handle him if he transformed, but Gohan didn't even need to transform to handle him. "Trunks stay out of this. I will handle him", Gohan got into his fighting stance as he spoke.

"I was looking forward to killing the one that killed my brother, but you are the highest power level on this planet and you are not him. Still this planet is almost empty, and purging the rest of it before I sell it won't take too much longer. "

"The hell you will!" Gohan charged, flying forward and kicking Cooler through the camping house that they had set up. He appeared behind him smashing him into the ground and leaving a giant crater. He followed that attack up with a series of energy blasts, pouring it on into the hole until the entire area was filled with smoke.

Cooler however only had minor wounds from the attacks and energy volley. He wiped some blood away from his face as he climbed out of the hole. "Not bad, you hurt me more then I have been hurt in a long time. This must be the super saiyan power that defeated the others in my family." Cooler didn't look worried as he floated in midair across from Gohan. "As you likely know I am in my family's 4th form. However I can take it one step further then they can. I have access to a 4th transformation."

_What? He has a 4__th__ transformation. No hes powerful enough without that, I can't take any risks that allowing to transform will make him more powerful then me. I need to take him down now._ Gohan lifted a hand above his head, rapidly charging energy. "This ends now Cooler. SUPER MASENKO." The energy blast shot out at Cooler hitting him dead on and blowing a hole right through his chest. Gohan floated there breathing hard, he had put a lot of energy into that attack.

"Gah!" Cooler fell to the ground bleeding out, but he wasn't finished quite yet. He had just enough energy left to transform. First the hole in his chest closed as his body grew in size. White armor appeared all over his body and spikes grew on his arms and legs. Three horns grew on top of his head as Cooler stood up restored. "I can transform a lot quicker then my late brother and father can. Now the real battle begins."

"Shit, all that energy spent and for nothing" Gohan said to himself. He got back into his fighting stance. His power, it's doubled in under a second. That's incredible. Still its not enough to beat me. Gohan smiled at Cooler. "You think that is enough to beat me?"

Suddenly Cooler was in front of Gohan, moving at a speed that Trunks was having trouble following with his eyes. Cooler smashed his fist into Gohan's face sending him flying backwards. Before Gohan could hit the ground Cooler was behind him, kicking him up into the air. Planting his foot into Gohan's back Cooler sent him flying into the trees. Not content with those two blows he fired a series of Death Beams after Gohan and then plowed through the trees to chase him. Or at least he started to chase him, but he was met by a transformed Trunks holding his sword in his hand.

"Stay away from my master!", Trunks yelled. "If you want him you are going to have to go through me."

"If that is how you want to play it, then sure boy."

Trunks didn't wait around for Cooler to make the first move as he charged in sword swinging. Cooler calmly blocked or dodged all of Trunks sword strikes, using the armor of his 5th form to his advantage. After a couple of minutes of Trunks attacking, he had only a shallow cut on Coolers arm to show for it. Seeing his blood flow enraged Cooler and he elbowed Trunks in the gut, causing Trunks to drop his sword as he doubled over grabbing at his chest. Blood poured out of Trunks mouth and soon other parts of his body as Cooler beat him mercilessly. Black and purple bruises were left with each savage strike on Trunks body. He started to fall backwards only to be grabbed by Coolers tail as it wrapped around his neck, choking the life out of him. His hair faded to purple as the strain of keeping the super saiyan form under the extreme beating that he had just taken became too much.

"You could have died quickly and mostly painlessly with the rest of the scum on your planet. Instead you choose to fight me and now you will die in agony. In fact I might break every.. " Cooler stopped talking when he noticed that Trunks was out cold. He threw Trunks away like one would throw a nasty piece of garbage, sending him spinning into the river where he floated face down. He watched as Trunks body began to be pulled downstream by the strong current before rising up in the air floating above Trunks. Unlike my brother, once I start a job, I see that it is finished. No half measures. " Cooler started to charge an energy blast in his right hand when he heard a voice behind him.

* * *

"Hey you, whoever you are, killing those two is a right that is reserved for us. I suggest you leave now before we have to punish you for breaking the rules."

Cooler spun around to see a teenage boy floating in the air behind him. "Who am I? I am Lord Cooler and I rule this planet now."

Android 17 gave him a mocking bow. "Wow a Lord. Hey Sis do you think killing a Lord is worth more points then killing a King?"

Android 18 was busy fishing Trunks out of the river and making sure that he didn't have any water from the river inside of him. She wasn't being gentle either and Trunks gave a loud gasp as he awoke coughing in her arms. Panic was clear in his eyes as he took in the fact that he was helpless to fight back if she wanted to kill him. 18 gave him smile, he looked kind of cute all beat up like this. "Relax I am not going to hurt you. Killing you as you are now wouldn't be any fun at all." 18 turned her head as she heard her brother speak off to the side. "Lord, King, they are just meaningless fancy titles. The title I like better is dead." She put Trunks aside and flew up to join her brother.

"Kill me?You dare to fight the great Lord Cooler? That is a mistake that you won't live to regret." Cooler clinched his fists in anger, he didn't like anyone mocking him. Most wouldn't dare, but it was always extra fun killing those that did. "Grovel and beg forgiveness and I will consider granting you a quick death." Consider and reject, but the human didn't need to know that.

"You seem decently strong and we were going to play with you for a bit then let you go on your way, but if you keep talking like that you are going to make us angry.", 18 told Cooler

"And you won't like us when we are angry," 17 said with a chuckle, he cracked himself up sometimes.

18 shot him an angry glare. "You say that same joke every time 17, ever since we were kids. Its not that funny, its just a dumb movie quote. I can't even remember what movie its from."

Cooler didn't know who these two were, or what their deal was, but he was tired of being treated like he was second rate. He charged at Android 17 punching him the face, with almost no effect. Android 17 didn't even move other then to turn his head to face Cooler. "I was in the middle of something. Can't you wait?"

"Hes very rude 17, lets teach him some manners", 18 said a wicked grin appearing on her face. The two Androids vanished attacking Cooler from both sides. The fight raged on in the sky, Cooler having to power up to his max to avoid being pummeled by the Androids.

* * *

Meanwhile Trunks had located Gohan and given him a Senzu bean, taking the last one for himself. He knew that Gohan would be unhappy that they were gone, but this was for a really good reason. "Gohan we got a problem, the Androids are here with Cooler."

"Shit!", Gohan swore. He stood up and transformed before going to go see what was going on.

"They are fighting in the sky Gohan, and it looks like Cooler is matching the Androids blow for blow."

"For now he is, but I don't think he can keep it up. Pay attention to how his energy feels, hes fine now, but soon he will start to wear out. The Androids never get tired, that is one of the things that makes fighting them so tough."

"What should we do Gohan? Just let them fight? What if Cooler tries to blow up the Earth?"

"If he does we will step in and stop him, until then lets just stay out of it." Gohan powered down again to save energy. "With a bit of planning and some luck we can finish off the winner or winners. Take care of both of our problems at once. But in order to pull it off you have to do exactly what I say with no questions understand Trunks?"

Trunks nodded eager to fight alongside his master. "Just tell me what to do and I will do it."

"Good, your role is to stay out of it, you aren't powerful enough to tangle with either of them, you will just get in my way."

That wasn't what Trunks expected to hear and he started to protest but a look from Gohan quieted him. _He needed to obey Gohan now, so that his master would trust him in combat later on. Gohan had told him the story of Piccolo's last stand and how it was really hard to obey his last order to run away from the fight but he did it because he needed to keep the fight alive. Trunks resolved that he would obey Gohan, for now anyway, but if Gohan needed his help he was going to step in, promise or not._ "Alright I will stay out of it."

* * *

_A/N: Well this took a bit longer to finish writing then I would have liked. Gohan is 22 at the start of the chapter because of his year in the HTC that passed in a day for the rest of the world. He still aged that year so I am counting it. Next chapter we see Cooler face off against the Androids. What will the outcome of this fight be? Will Gohan have to get involved? If he does who's side will he be fighting on? I can tell you one thing, expect the unexpected. A big thanks to __**RoxaShadow**__ for beta reading this chapter._

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_Reviews_

_BleachedWarlocker_

_This was a great chapter. Gohan going to end up loosing his arm again or is he going to keep it lol_

**A: Thank you, glad you enjoyed it. I can't tell you if Gohan is going to lose his arm, you will have to read and find out.**

_Damn123_

_Keep it up!_

_**A: Thank you, I have a large part of this story plotted out and hopefully everyone will enjoy reading it.**_


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